ORU Athletics
TULSA – From start to finish, the Oral Roberts women’s basketball team controlled the pace as they rolled to a 72-44 win over St. Thomas inside the Mabee Center. Delaney Nix poured in an ORU career-high 16 points to lead all scorers.
The Golden Eagles got out to a quick start, leading 19-14 after the first ten minutes of action. Nix and Hannah Cooper combined for 12 of the 19 points in the first quarter as ORU shot an even 50% from the floor. On the defensive end, Keni Jo Lippe pulled down four rebounds and picked up a pair of steals in the frame.
In the second quarter, both teams locked in defensively, combining for just 23 total points. Once again, the Golden Eagles extended their lead after outscoring the Tommies 13-10. After St. Thomas cut the deficit to just one with 3:54 to play, ORU went on a 7-0 run to end the half with baskets from Nix, Regan Schumacher, and Faith Paramore. The Golden Eagles took the eight point lead into the break and never trailed in the second half.
Early in the second half, the Tommies refused to go down without a fight. Trailing by as few as two with 4:27 to play, the ORU offense began firing on all cylinders. With 1:14 to go in the third quarter, Nix connected on a driving layup for a new career-high as a Golden Eagle. When the dust had settled, Nix’s layup was part of a 10-0 to end to quarter.
Going into the final frame up 12, the Golden Eagles looked to finish the job at hand. After allowing a layup on the first St. Thomas possession, ORU went on a 14-0 run and put the game out of reach. Four different players scored throughout the run, led by five points from Katie Scott. In dominant fashion, the Golden Eagles controlled the whole fourth quarter, outscoring the Tommies 22-6.
Delaney Nix led all scorers with 16 points, marking a new career-high in the gold and blue. Katie Scott followed suit with 15 points of her own and a game-high eight rebounds.
Kaia Porter led the way for St. Thomas with 11 points and seven rebounds. Jade Hill dished out a team-high three assists.
ORU remains undefeated in 2022, moving to 4-0. Both #ORUWBB and #ORUMBB remain undefeated in 2022, combining for an 8-0 record.
Nix, Scott, and Tirzah Moore all finished with double-digit scoring. Moore has now scored in double-digits in 12 of ORU’s last 13 games.
The four game winning streak is the longest winning streak for ORU since the beginning of the 2019-20 season, when ORU started 4-0. The last time ORU won four straight conference games was in 2015-16 when ORU won six straight.
The Golden Eagles will head north to uppermost Dakota for a pair of road games this week. On Thursday, the Golden Eagles will be in Grand Forks on Thursday night before flocking to Fargo on Saturday afternoon.