Tulsa World: Eagles to count on Morrison's scoring

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Eagles to count on Morrison's scoring
ORU has lost 30.5 points per game from last season's team.

ORU sophomore Dominique Morrison averaged 9.6 points per game last season and is the Golden Eagles' top returning scorer from last season. MIKE SIMONS/Tulsa World

By MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer
Published: 10/30/2009 2:22 AM
Last Modified: 10/30/2009 5:57 AM

Teammates called Dominique Morrison by at least two nicknames during his freshman Oral Roberts University basketball season.

They called him Slow-Mo for the smooth, unhurried way he moved around the court, and Dom-Mo as an abbreviated version of his name.

They may be calling him Sco'-Mo' this season. The 6-foot-6 sophomore will have an open invitation to score more points than his 9.6 freshman average. The Eagles are counting on it, although nobody has put it in so many words.

"I don't think anybody's pressured him to feel that way," head coach Scott Sutton said during Thursday's media day activities at the Mabee Center. "But I just think it's a natural progression from your freshman to sophomore year. I'd be willing to bet he'll score a lot more points this year."

As the Golden Eagles' top returning scorer from last season, Morrison is the logical candidate to make up for some of the 30.5

points per game that were lost from the lineup when Robert Jarvis and Marcus Lewis played their last game.

"There may be an opportunity there, but I've never been the kind to just go score, score, score," Morrison. "We've got other scorers on this team. I'm going to play my game and take what the defense gives me. But if it's there, I'll take it."

Morrison and his teammates will get more and better scoring opportunities if new point guards Rod Pearson and Hunter McClintock pan out like Sutton hopes they will.

Pearson dished 150 assists in two Division I seasons at Southeast Missouri State before transferring to ORU. McClintock had a flashy North Carolina high school career and thrived at the Patterson School, one of the nation's top prep school programs, last season.

They give ORU two more point guards than it had last year when Jarvis, a shooting guard, played the point out of necessity and spent more time getting his teammates open than getting himself open.

The Eagles never found a consistent rhythm and labored to a 16-15 mark, failing to win the regular-season Summit League title for the first time in five years.

With Pearson and McClintock pushing the ball, Sutton thinks the Eagles will play at a faster tempo than they have in years.

It certainly fits the style of 6-foot-9 Kevin Ford, who showed what he could do with breakaway chances last season by flushing 29 dunks and becoming a regular on ESPN's nightly "Plays of the Day" segment.

More speed comes in athletic 6-foot-5 wings Kyron Stokes, a returning sophomore, and junior-college transfer Michael Craion, an all-region performer at Independence (Kan.) Community College last season.

Sophomore guard Ken Holdman has made marked improvement since last season, and he runs the floor like an Olympic sprinter.

Mike Brown 581-8390
mike.brown@tulsaworld.com By MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer

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Some reader comments for this story were copied from "ORU's Sutton introduces new team," which was published on 10/29/2009.

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Pa alum, chambersburg (10/29/2009 10:36:36 PM)

Can not wait to see the new Golden Eagles. I am a grad of ORU, live in Pennsylvania and am going to the game at University of Virginia on November 21. Can't wait. Go ORU.

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