ORU falls to Stephen F. Austin

Stephen F. Austin out-scored Oral Roberts 15-2 over a span of 5:32, stretching from the first half to the second and the run proved too much to overcome as ORU fell 77-67, Saturday night at Johnson Coliseum.

With 67 points, ORU (14-10, 9-3 Southland) fell just short of breaking SFA’s (20-2, 11-1 Southland) record that now stands at 54 games without allowing 70 points. Only Central Arkansas (69) has scored more points this season against the nation’s best scoring defense.

Damen Bell-Holter led ORU with 22 points and 10 rebounds, while Warren Niles added 19 points, all in the second half. Shawn Glover scored 12 points, all in the first half and played just 39 seconds in the second half before leaving the game with a cut near his eye. SFA finished the game just shy of 50 percent (26-53) and hit six 3-pointers.

“It was a tough game,” said Coach Scott Sutton. “In the first half, we had chances. We got off to a good start but we just weren’t able to hit shots. We let Smith get too deep on the offensive end. I thought we had a lot of success early with Damen and Shawn and then we got great looks we just didn’t knock them down. You don’t beat one of the best teams in the conference on the road, and you don’t beat good basketball teams without making shots.”

ORU will finish out its home portion of the schedule with a four-game homestand, starting on Valentine’s Day as the Golden Eagles host Sam Houston State at 7:30 p.m. in the Mabee Center.