ORU stomps IUPUI - Tulsa World (1-15-06)

[ORUTerry]

ORU stomps IUPUI

By MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer

1/15/2006

Who said the Oral Roberts University basketball team has no outside shooters?

The Golden Eagles summoned all the confidence they have lacked for the last month and shot holes in Indiana-Purdue's unbeaten record in Mid-Continent Conference play.

Larry Owens scored 21 points and four players combined to make eight 3-pointers as ORU rolled to an 86-76 homecoming win Saturday night, lifting the Eagles into a first-place conference tie.

Caleb Green had 18 points and three rebounds, a good night's work for some, but the fewest points the Mid-Con's leading scorer and rebounder has scored in six games.

Coach Ron Hunter's Jaguars double- and triple-teamed Green, forcing the Eagles, playing their second game without injured Ken Tutt, to beat them from the outside.

The first two times the Jaguars converged, Green threw to open men on the perimeter. Jonathan Bluitt and Eric Fowlkes nailed 3-pointers and the Eagles were off and running to a near-record shooting night of 69 percent.

Chris Riouse made all four of his first-half 3-point attempts to score a season-high 13 as ORU shot 29-of-42 from the field and built leads of up to 22 points.

With Owens crashing the boards and driving the middle to make 8-of-9 shots, the Eagles didn't miss their 10th shot of the game until under 11 minutes remained. ORU barely missed its Mabee Center shooting record of 69.3 percent, set against Butler in 1984.

The same team looked impotent from the outside in Monday's loss to Valparaiso, its first without the injured Tutt, a career 8.1-points-per-game scorer.

"It's all about confidence. You hit a couple of big shots and it can change the rest of your season," said Bluitt, who had two 3-pointers among his season-high 15 points. He also had a season-high nine assists.

ORU coach Scott Sutton said it was "the best game Jonathan has played all year. It reminded me of how he played last year. He made some wonderful assists to his teammates and knocked down some shots. We're going to need J.B. to play like that down the stretch for us."

George Hill scored a game-high 26 points to lead the Jaguars (9-7, 4-1).

ORU (9-8, 4-1) moved into a first-place tie with IUPUI and Valparaiso, which won at Western Illinois on Saturday night.

The Jaguars had first place to themselves after Thursday's win at Missouri-Kansas City, giving them their best-ever start in conference play.

"We knew it was a huge mission coming in here, trying to get another win on the road," Hunter said. "They're a senior team. They knew they couldn't go two down to us and we were probably going to get their best shot. They haven't shot the ball like that all year. We double- and triple-teamed (Green) and tried make them beat us (from the outside)."

ORU made 7-of-10 from 3-point range in the first half and led by as many as 16 points, despite getting only four first-half points from Green.

The eight 3-pointers tied a season high for the team.

[ORUTerry]

ORU Notebook

By MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer

1/15/2006

Crack the list:

Caleb Green's first two rebounds against IUPUI tied him for 10th in all-time Mid-Continent Conference rebounding. Barry Johnson of Eastern Illinois had 737 career rebounds in 1988-92. Green started Saturday's game with 735 rebounds and has a year to go. He is on pace to break the all-time league record of 910, set by Valparaiso's Chris Ensminger (1992-96).

All-everything:

Larry Owens did a little of everything in leading the Eagles with 21 points. He also had a game-high nine rebounds, along with four assists and two blocked shots in 39 minutes.

"Larry's like our Reggie Bush; he can do it all," said senior guard Jonathan Bluitt. "He can play (all five positions,) bring the ball up, set up his teammates and create for himself. He's a great utility man to have. He does a lot for this team."

Averaging 10.6 points per game for the year, Owens has improved his offense over the past four, averaging 16.3.

Back in action:

Andrew Meloy played for the first time since injuring his knee at Northern Colorado on Dec. 11. With his left knee in a brace, Meloy drew applause as he entered the game with 2:24 left in the first half. He played six minutes, missing his only shot.

Officials visit:

Mid-Con commissioner Tom Douple and associate commissioner Ed Grom attended Saturday's game after two days of meetings with the Tulsa Sports Commission, which will stage the conference tournament at the Union Multipurpose Activity Center for the second straight year (March 4-7).

Douple recently announced a five-year contract extension with ESPN to televise the Mid-Con championships, a deal which will in clude the women's championship game on ESPNU for the first time.

ESPNU, newest member of the ESPN family, is only available in Tulsa through satellite providers, but Douple said the women's title game may be given to cable providers where ESPNU is not available. Douple said he is also negotiating with ESPN to televise other conference championships.

Looking ahead:

Oakland (Mich.) visits ORU on Thursday night, its first return to Tulsa since upsetting the Golden Eagles in the final of last year's conference tournament.

The Grizzlies have some of the role players from their first NCAA Tournament qualifying, but start mostly newcomers and players who sat out last season after transferring from other Division I schools. Junior guard Calvin Wooten, who transferred from Rutgers, is second in Mid-Con scoring, averaging 21.2 points per game.