Golden Eagles Cruise Past NW Oklahoma State, 86-50
Courtesy: ORU Media Relations
Release: 11/16/2009
Courtesy: ORU Media Relations
Niles and Ford led a balanced attack which featured six players with six or more points. Niles was 6-of-11 from the floor, including 3-of-6 from three-point range. He added six rebounds and two assists. Ford made 7-of-9 shots from the field and collected three blocked shots. His 14 rebounds were the most by an ORU player in nearly three years.
ORU (1-1) never trailed in the game, and opened play with a 10-0 lead less than three minutes into the game. The Golden Eagles grabbed their first 20-point lead when a Niles layup gave ORU a 26-6 advantage with 9:57 left in the first half.
After leading 41-18 at halftime, ORU pushed its advantage to 30 points when Damen Bell-Holter (Hydaburg, Alaska) converted a layup to make it 54-24 with 14:25 to play. A Ford dunk at 7:36 gave the Golden Eagles their first 40-point edge at 71-31.
The lead reached 42 points twice, the last time coming on a three-pointer by Michael Fletcher (Columbus, Ohio) for an 86-44 lead with 1:42 left.
Michael Craion (Kansas City, Mo.) joined Niles and Ford in double-digits, scoring 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting.
Brandon Dixon led the Rangers (3-1) with 11 points.
The Golden Eagles shot 50.7 percent (34-67) for the game, including 57 percent in the second half. ORU was 8-of-22 from three-point range and 10-of-15 from the free throw line.
ORU limited the Rangers to 30.9 percent shooting, including 3-of-21 from long range. The Golden Eagles out-rebounded NWOSU, 55-29.
Up next for ORU is a clash at Stanford, 9 p.m. CST, Wednesday. The game is part of the Cancun Challenge, which also features a game at Virginia on Saturday and two games in Cancun next week.
--ORU--
