There were more than 7,800 fans at the Mabee Center Saturday night, celebrating Hall of Fame night, as the ORU men’s basketball team defeated Omaha, 73-64. The win improves ORU’s record to 19-4 overall, and keeps the Golden Eagles undefeated at home this season, and a perfect 10-0 in the Summit League. Omaha dropped to 7-16 overall and 3-8 in the Summit League.

At halftime, with several ORU Athletic Hall of Fame members on hand, former basketball great Caleb Green was inducted into the Hall of Fame, plus his uniform No. 30 was retired, and now hangs in the rafters.

“It’s an unreal feeling,” Green said about having his number retired. “I knew it was coming, and everything that was happening with it, but just to see the jersey, it says Green, it says Green up there.”

ORU jumped out to a six-point lead in the opening minutes of the game, and eventually led by nine points midway through the first half. However, Omaha came roaring back with a 10-0 run to take a one-point lead, 24-23, with 7:37 left in the first half.

The teams exchanged baskets and leads, and ORU led 32-30 at halftime.

In the second half, the Golden Eagles jumped out ahead by seven before a 6-0 Omaha run brought the Mavericks to within one. With 8:43 left on the clock, Omaha tied the game, 49-49.

After a layup by ORU’s DeShang Weaver, the Mavericks took their first lead of the second half with a three-pointer on the following possession. Omaha would lead by as much as three in the second.

When trailing by one, Connor Vanover hit a pair of free-throws to regain a one-point lead for ORU that would spark a 10-0 Golden Eagle run. The run was highlighted by a steal and dunk by Kareem Thompson with 1:29 to play. Omaha would get back to within seven, but Trey Phipps closed out the game with a pair of points from the free throw line.

Four Golden Eagles scored in double-digits with Vanover leading the team with a season high 23 points and 10 rebounds for a consecutive double-double. Vanover had four blocks in the game, giving him 71 blocks on the season and putting him second in the nation in total blocks and blocks per game.

Max Abmas scored 18 points followed by Issac McBride who had his sixth consecutive double-digit game with 13. Kareem Thompson recorded 11 points for back-to-back double-digit games.

Abmas has scored 2,303 career points which puts him 5th all-time in the ORU record book. He is the eighth player to record 2,000-plus points in ORU history. He’s recorded 378 three-pointers made, making him second all-time in ORU history in that category.

Defensively, ORU has held conference opponents to 72 or fewer points in eight of their 10 games played.

Tulsa native Marquel Sutton led Omaha with 19 points and Frankie Fidler pulled down 10 rebounds, for the Mavericks.