Leathernecks, Jackson's 24 upset Eagles - TW (1-25-06)

[ORUTerry]

Leathernecks, Jackson's 24 upset Eagles

By Staff Reports

1/25/2006

Fouls keep Green on bench as ORU falls in Mid-Con contest.

MACOMB, Ill. -- It may have seemed like the best and worst teams in the Mid-Continent Conference playing each other, but only in reverse.

Last-place Western Illinois used a game-high 24 points by David Jackson to upset Oral Roberts University 70-65 and break a six-game losing streak Tuesday night. ORU played most of the first half without its scoring leader, Caleb Green, who picked up his second foul only 3:08 into the game and didn't score until 16:44 remained.

WIU led almost from start to finish in beating the Eagles in Western Hall for the second straight year and preventing the Eagles from climbing into a first-place conference tie.

ORU (10-9, 5-2) trails Indiana-Purdue by a full game. The Eagles return home to host Centenary on Thursday night.

Jackson hit his first five shots in scoring 16 first-half points and pacing the Leathernecks to a 37-23 halftime lead. The only first-half shot he missed was one blocked by ORU's Larry Owens.

The Eagles rallied in the second half, cutting the lead to six with 12:30 left, to three with five minutes left and finally to two on a 3-pointer by Moses Ehambe with 12 seconds left. But Jackson hit two foul shots to put the game out of reach.

The Eagles shot a season-low 48 percent (11-of-23) from the foul line, failing almost every time they had an opportunity to take control of the game.

Green missed the front end of a one-and-one at 48-42, and freshman Marchello Vealey missed two foul shots with the score the same on the next possession. From there, WIU ran its lead back to 13 points.

"I'm as disappointed as I've been all year," said ORU coach Scott Sutton. "To come in here, against a team that is struggling to make the conference tournament, we didn't play with a lot of urgency in the first half. They were hungrier than we were tonight. They wanted this game more than we did."

Western (6-13, 2-6) moved into an eighth-place tie with Oakland (Mich.). The ninth-place team doesn't qualify for the conference tournament.

The Eagles were outrebounded 39-36 and couldn't keep the Leathernecks off the boards in the second half. WIU scored repeatedly with second-chance opportunities. One of the biggest was Eliz Cepada's putback for a 58-45 WIU lead with 7:57 left.

Green finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds, notching his league-leading 10th double-double of the season.

Mickey Michalec chipped in a season-high 14 points in 7-of-11 shooting, and Owens had 13 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

ORU's only leads came on baskets by Michalec at 2-0 and 4-3. Jackson's 3-pointers erased both deficits, and WIU quickly built a 12-4 lead.

The Eagles cut that deficit to 18-16, but then failed on three straight possessions with a chance to tie and never got close again until the final minute of the game.

Jackson's fourth 3-pointer of the first half made it 25-18, and the Leathernecks pushed their margin to double digits as the Eagles missed eight of their final shots of the half.

Michalec led ORU's first-half scoring with 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting. His teammates had a combined 5-of-22 as the Eagles were 10-of-25 in the first half.