Tulsa World: Defense encourages Sutton

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Defense encourages Sutton
ORU coach wants to see strong effort against Harding.

Ken Holdman (12) and Oral Roberts host Division II Harding College on Saturday in their second exhibition game of the season. CORY YOUNG/Tulsa World file

By MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer
Published: 11/7/2009 2:22 AM
Last Modified: 11/7/2009 6:36 AM

The Oral Roberts basketball team gave an encouraging defensive performance in its first exhibition game.

Head coach Scott Sutton said he wants to see more of the same when the Golden Eagles host Harding College, a Division II school from Searcy, Ark., for Saturday's second exhibition. ORU's regular season starts Friday at Wake Forest.

"This team has a chance to be good defensively, but we allowed way too much penetration and our help-side defense wasn't as good as it should have been," Sutton said.

"But it's early and I think we have the athleticism to do it. Our guys are starting to understand what we want," Sutton said.

The Eagles allowed visiting British Columbia to shoot only 32.3 percent, forced 17 tunovers and rolled to an 82-57 win last Monday night.

That's despite playing without freshman guard Hunter McClintock and redshirt freshman forward Tim Morton, both sidelined by season-ending knee injuries.

Michael Craion, Dominique Morrison and Ken Holdman had two steals each against UBC. The 6-foot-5 Craion posted game highs in points (18) and rebounds (nine) in his first action since transferring from Independence (Kan.) Community College.

Sutton said he will start the same lineup from Monday, with Morrison and Craion joined by guard Rod Pearson, forward Kevin Ford and wingman Kyron Stokes.

Harding returns its top scorers from last season and is picked to finish third in the West Division of the Gulf State Conference.

Kevin Brown

averaged 13.4 points and 6.1 rebounds last season and Trent Morgan averaged 13.1 points and had 55 steals.

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

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ORU_TXAlum, (11/7/2009 3:23:38 PM)

It'll be interesting to see who responds tonight. Look for players like Stokes and Morrison to reassert themselves into the offense. If we have any chance to compete with Stanford, Wake Forest, and Virginia, we're going to have to a lot of weapons.

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