THURSDAY'S GAME BASICS
Oklahoma (5-1) plays the second of three straight home games when Oral Roberts (6-2) visits Lloyd Noble Center on Thursday at 7 p.m. CT. The Sooners are coming off their largest victory margin of the season in an 82-53 win over Sacramento State on Friday. The Golden Eagles have won their last six games after a 0-2 start. Thursday's contest will air on the Sooner Radio Network (KOKC AM 1520 in Oklahoma City; KTBZ AM 1430 in Tulsa; Sirius 113, XM 191) with Toby Rowland and Mike Houck announcing. The game will be televised by the Sooner Sports Network (KAUT Ch. 43 in OKC; KOCO Ch. 6 in Tulsa; ESPN Full Court) with Bob Carpenter and Billy Tubbs calling the action.
PREVIEWING ORAL ROBERTS
• After losing its first two games of the season at West Virginia (78-71) and versus Texas-San Antonio (78-77), Oral Roberts has reeled off six straight victories. The Golden Eagles used a 16-2 run over the final 4:28 to win 61-55 this past Saturday at home against Southern Utah in their Summit League opener. Their five starters each average at least 29.5 minutes per game.
• A heavy favorite to win the Summit League (it received 27 of 32 first-place votes in the conference's preseason poll), ORU is outscoring its opponents by 8.1 a game (70.4-62.2) and is outrebounding them by an average of 6.9 boards.
• Oral Roberts had five players named to the first or second All-Summit League preseason teams. Senior forwards Dominique Morrison and Michael Craion were first-team picks. Morrison is averaging a team-high 16.4 points per game to go along with 3.8 rebounds. He scored 30 points in a six-point win over SMU and has already attempted 53 free throws on the year (shooting .774). Craion averages 12.9 points and team highs of 7.8 rebounds and 3.0 steals per contest. He is shooting .565 from the field.
• Sophomore forward Steven Roundtree, junior guard Warren Niles and junior forward/center Damen Bell-Holter were second-team preseason all-conference selections. Last year's Summit League Newcomer of the Year, Roundtree averages 12.8 points and 7.6 points while shooting a team-best .578 from the floor. Niles contributes 11.8 points, 4.1 boards and 3.0 assists per outing and has made a team-high 13 treys (shooting .265 from deep). Bell-Holter played eight minutes in the opener at West Virginia then missed the next five games due to a back injury. He is averaging 28.0 minutes the last two outings and is coming off an 11-point, 11-rebound performance against Southern Utah.
• Head coach Scott Sutton is 229-157 (.593) in his 13th year as a collegiate head coach, all at ORU. He is the school's career wins leader.
OU-ORAL ROBERTS HISTORY
Thursday's game will mark the 13th between Oklahoma and Oral Roberts, with the Sooners owning a 10-2 series advantage and winning each of the last 10 meetings. Nine of OU's 10 wins in the series have come by double digits. ORU's two victories against the Sooners came in the 1976-77 (64-58 in Norman) and 1976-77 (68-50 in Tulsa) seasons.
LAST YEAR VS. THE GOLDEN EAGLES
• Oklahoma overcame three different 13-point first-half deficits to post a 73-60 home win over the Golden Eagles on Dec. 11, 2010. Trailing 24-12, OU closed the first half with a 22-2 run over the last 9:55 to lead 34-26 at the break. ORU went 0-for-12 from the field the last 10 minutes of the half after it started 8-for-11. It went a span of 9:19 without scoring a point.
• Five Sooners scored in double figures. Steven Pledger was 4-for-6 from 3-point range and finished with a team-high 19 points. He hit three treys in the span of two and a half minutes during OU's 22-2 first-half run.
• Cameron Clark registered 17 points and three steals. He played all 40 minutes and was 8-for-11 from the field. Andrew Fitzgerald finished with 14 points and a team-high eight rebounds, Carl Blair tallied 12 points and a game-high nine assists, and Cade Davis added 10 points and six rebounds.
• OU outscored ORU 13-3 in fast break points, and the Sooners' 13-rebound advantage (39-26) wound up as its largest of the season.
• Warren Niles came off the bench to score a game-high 22 points for the Golden Eagles. He hit six 3-pointers on 11 attempts. Dominique Morrison and Steven Roundtree added 11 points each, while Damen Bell-Holter scored 10.
