Eagles to buckle down on road trip (TW 1-17-09)

[MrsSmith]

By MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer

1/17/2009

Last Modified: 1/17/2009  2:51 AM

Now that half the job is done, Oral Roberts basketball coach Scott Sutton said it's time to get greedy.

The Golden Eagles look to sweep a two-game Summit League road trip when they visit Western Illinois at 7 p.m. Saturday.

With Thursday's 67-58 win at Indiana-Purdue Indianapolis, the Eagles have won four straight and remain one-half game behind league-leading North Dakota State, which won at Southern Utah on Thursday night.

ORU blew a 12-point halftime lead at IUPUI, but rallied from a six-point deficit over the final 9:20.

Sutton said his still-developing team showed toughness down the stretch. Now, he wants the Eagles to finish the job.

"This win won't mean as much if we can't go and get a sweep," Sutton said.

It could be a perilous journey. The Eagles lead the Western Illinois series 20-5, but haven't played their best ball in Macomb, Ill., even when they had more experienced teams. They lost there in 2005 and 2006 and won by only seven and five points in Macomb the past two years.

New head coach Jim Molinari is trying to spark a turnaround. The Leathernecks' last winning season was 10 years ago. They won only 40 games in five seasons under former head coach Derek Thomas, who stepped down in March.

Molinari knows about leading programs. He guided Bradley to 174 wins and six postseason appearances over 11 years (1992-02) and spent most of the 2006-07 season as Minnesota's interim head coach.

"The (WIU) program's not in good shape. We have a lot of work to do on scheduling and recruiting," Molinari said.

"But we're in good shape character-wise, and we're getting people to surrender for a group goal. When you have that, you have a chance to build and start winning," he said.

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