SE Oklahoma News

The Oral Roberts men's basketball team shut down South Dakota State to extend its win streak to seven with a 79-40 win Monday evening at the Mabee Center.
 
The Golden Eagles opened Summit League play Friday evening with a victory and are now 5-1 in league openers under head coach Paul Mills. Oral Roberts' defense stole the show as ORU held the defending league champions to 40 points, the fewest points the Golden Eagles have allowed this season. The 40 points is also the fewest ORU has allowed a league opponent since joining the Mid-Continent Conference/Summit League. It was also the fewest amount of points ORU has allowed in a conference game since the 1982-83 campaign.
 
In the first possession, ORU made a statement with a dunk by Connor Vanover to kick the league season off. Alex Arians answered for SDSU on the following play with a three-point bucket to give the Jackrabbits their only lead of the game, 3-2, 30 seconds in. After retaking the lead by one, the Max Abmas and Vanover hit back-to-back three's to go up by seven. SDSU would then inch their way back, but a 15-3 run by ORU would give the Golden Eagles a 15 point cushion with seven minutes left in the first. At the break, the Golden Eagles led, 40-21, as Vanover led all scorers with 11 first half points. ORU allowed SDSU only eight field goals in the first 20 minutes and held the Jackrabbits to 25.8 percent from the field.
 
ORU started the second half with a 13-2 run that was highlighted by back-to-back Vanover three's to take a 30 point lead with 16:21 on the clock. The closest the Jackrabbits would get in the second half was when Matt Mims hit a three-point shot to bring SDSU to within 26. The Golden Eagles would then pull further away extending their lead to 41 before ending the game with the 79-40 victory.
 
It was the seventh-straight win for ORU as the Golden Eagles are on their longest winning streak since the 2011-12 season. Vanover led all scorers with a season high 21 points on the night. DeShang Weaver followed up with 14 and Carlos Jurgens had 12. ORU improves to 8-0 on the season at home.

Individual Leaders
Oral Roberts: Vanover had 21 points with six rebounds. Kareem Thompson pulled down eight rebounds.

South Dakota State: Alex Arians and William Kyle III each had eight points and Broden Lien pulled down eight boards.

Inside the Box Score
- ORU shot 39.3 percent from the three-point line.
 
- ORU shot 48.5 percent from the field.

- The Golden Eagles had 20 assists on 32 made baskets.

- Oral Roberts had 38 points in the paint and 25 bench points.

- ORU forced SDSU to 17 turnovers and scored 24 points off those takeaways.

News and Notes

- Abmas has scored 2,046 career points which puts him 6th all-time in the ORU record book. He is the eighth player to record 2,000-plus points in ORU history. He's recorded 339 three-pointer made making him second all-time in ORU history in that category.
 
- Vanover has 36 blocks on the season and is second the nation in total blocks and in blocks per game. He had a season high 21 points and went 9-for-14 overall and 3-for-7 from three-point range. He also had a season high three steals.

- Kareem Thompson captured a career high seven assists and Abmas had a season high six assists.

- Patrick Mwamba had a season high five blocks

Original source can be found here