Tulsa World: ORU prepares for SHSU's hot-shooting Allmond

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ORU prepares for SHSU's hot-shooting Allmond
Golden Eagles will also need someone to take over at point guard.

Sam Houston State's Corey Allmond celebrates after sinking a three-point shot against Kentucky last week. AP PHOTO

By MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer
Published: 11/24/2009 2:21 AM
Last Modified: 11/24/2009 5:11 PM

Who's playing point guard? That's a good question for the Oral Roberts University basketball team.

But there's no mystery about whom the Golden Eagles must slow down Tuesday when they face Sam Houston State in the Cancun Challenge.

SHSU senior guard Corey Allmond is one of the hottest 3-point shooters in the land. He made 11 treys in last Thursday's 102-92 loss at fourth-ranked Kentucky, a record for storied Rupp Arena.

"I'm sure he's feeling good about himself after doing that against one of the top teams in college basketball," ORU head coach Scott Sutton said.

Allmond ranks fourth nationally, hitting 46.2 percent (18-of-39) from beyond the arc. As a team, the Bearkats are tied for ninth nationally with 41 treys in their first four games.

Senior guard Ashton Mitchell also returns for a team that won the Southland Conference's West Division title last year and is favored to do so again. Allmond and Mitchell were all-Southland preseason selections.

"They're well coached (by Bob Marlin, 202-125 in his 12th year at the helm), and it's gonna be a big-time challenge for us," Sutton said.

Sutton would feel better if junior point guard Roderick Pearson, who made the game-winning shot at Stanford last Wednesday, hadn't suffered a potentially serious knee injury in Saturday's loss at Virginia.

Pearson had a swollen knee and was "obviously in a lot of pain," Sutton said, as the team arrived Sunday in Cancun and practiced for 90 minutes in the Moon Palace Resort.

Sutton said the severity of the injury will likely not be known until the Eagles return home later this week and Pearson can undergo an MRI scan. But he said Virginia's doctors who examined the injury indicated that a torn anterior cruciate ligament was likely, requiring surgery.

If so, Pearson would be the third ORU player and second point guard lost for the year. True freshman guard Hunter McClintock and redshirt freshman forward Tim Morton each tore an ACL in the same Oct. 30 practice.

"It's just unfortunate," Sutton said. "We've never had a year (with injuries) like this, and obviously we're holding out some hope that Rod's injury is not as severe as we think. But injuries are a part of sports, and it's just something you have to move on from."

Meanwhile, who's playing the point? Sutton said he would probably start true freshman Warren Niles in Tuesday's game while predicting "lots of minutes" for sophomore Ken Holdman.

Sutton also said Dominique Morrison, Kyron Stokes and even Michael Craion will probably have to share in running the team. It sounds more than vaguely like last season when shooting guard Robert Jarvis was forced to split his time at the point and struggled at both positions.

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

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