Tulsa World: ORU hits the boards in big win

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ORU hits the boards in big win

ORU guard Ken Holdman (left) tries a steal against Northwestern Oklahoma State’s Daryl Glover during the second half on Monday. MICHAEL WYKE / Tulsa World

By MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer
Published: 11/17/2009 2:22 AM
Last Modified: 11/17/2009 4:47 AM

After taking its lumps in last Friday's regular-season opener, the Oral Roberts University basketball team took it out on somebody else Monday night.

Senior forward Kevin Ford had 15 points and 14 rebounds and freshman guard Warren Niles scored a game-high 16 points as the Golden Eagles rolled past Northwestern Oklahoma State 86-50 before an announced crowd of 3,060 at the Mabee Center.

"We challenged our guys to dominate (Northwestern) like we got dominated," head coach Scott Sutton said.

ORU lost its season opener at Wake Forest 76-56 last Friday, getting outrebounded 55-29.

This time, the Golden Eagles dominated the boards to the tune of 55-29 against the NAIA school from Alva.

Ford's 14 rebounds were the most by an ORU player since Caleb Green snagged 15 at Arkansas on Dec. 22, 2006. Sophomore forward Kyron Stokes added nine rebounds to go with seven points.

ORU squared its record at 1-1. The game was a non-counting exhibition on Northwestern State's schedule. The Rangers are 3-0.

"I thought we came back (from the Wake Forest loss)," Sutton said. "We jumped on (Northwestern) and that's always important when you're supposed to win the game. We got them down, and I thought for the first 10 or 12 minutes, we played really well."

ORU scored the first 10 points, led 24-6 after five minutes, 41-18 at halftime and 78-36 with 4:58 left.

"I'm happy with the way we played. We shared the ball and played better than what we played at Wake Forest," Ford said. "Our defense was there, we outrebounded them and we got easy baskets."

Niles, who scored 11 in the opener, hit 6-of-11 from the field, including 3-of-6 from 3-point range. He also drove the ball and splintered the defense at least twice for layups.

"I'm going to take whatever the defense gives me," Niles said. "If they run out at me, I'm gonna go past them. I'm just playing my game."

Junior forward Michael Craion added 10 points, sophomore swingman Dominique Morrison had nine and eight Eagles scored six points or more. Junior point guard Roderick Pearson had four points, six assists and four rebounds with only two turnovers in 25 minutes.

The confidence-building win comes on the eve of a 10-day road trip in the Cancun Challenge, starting with Wednesday's game at Stanford. From there, the Eagles will fly cross country to play at Virginia of the Atlantic Coast Conference on Saturday afternoon before continuing to Cancun, where they will play Sam Houston State and Rider or Florida A&M on Nov. 24-25.

"I feel our coach set it up that way because he has a belief that we can get this program back and running where it's supposed to be," Ford said.

Up next

At Stanford

9 p.m. Wednesday

TV: None

Radio: KYAL fm97.1, am1550

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 rolls past NWOSU," which was published on 11/16/2009.

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