Tulsa Standard

The Oral Roberts men's basketball team improved its home record to 11-0 after an 81-69 victory Saturday evening over St. Thomas at the Mabee Center.
 
Five Golden Eagles scored in double-digits Saturday night in front of a 5,000-plus crowd at the Mabee Center. Abmas led ORU with 17 points followed by Patrick Mwamba and Kareem Thompson who each had 15. Connor Vanover added 13 and Issac McBride scored 10.
 
The Golden Eagles led for the majority of the game as St. Thomas had a two point lead early, before ORU took over for good. With 10:56 left in the first, ORU managed a five point lead, but UST was able to come back and cut it to two before an 8-0 run put the Golden Eagles back up by 10. The Tommies managed a 15-6 run of its own to pull to within one with 3:45 left in the opening half. The Golden Eagles would then close out the half on a 7-0 run to go into the break ahead, 38-30. Abmas led all scorers with 10 first half points as ORU shot 55.6 percent from the field.
 
It was all ORU in the second as the Golden Eagles quickly jumped out to an 11 point lead. St. Thomas would not go away as the Tommies would cut their deficit to three with 12:28 to play. That would be the closest UST would get. ORU took a double-digit advantage with 7:25 to go and would maintain the separation. St. Thomas would get as close as nine with two minutes to play, but down the stretch, ORU would hit free-throws and win 81-69 for its sixth-straight Summit League victory.
 
It was the first time since the Central Arkansas game earlier this season that ORU had five score in double-figures. Defensively, it was fourth time in the six league games played that ORU has held a conference opponent to 69 points or less. 

Individual Leaders
Oral Roberts: Abmas had 17 and Kareem Thompson pulled down eight rebounds.

St. Thomas: Parker Bjorklund captured 23 points and grabbed six rebounds.

Inside the Box Score
- ORU shot 43.5 percent from the three-point line.
 
- ORU shot 56.9 percent from the field.

- The Golden Eagles had 13 assists on 29 made baskets.

- Oral Roberts had 38 points in the paint and 26 bench points.

- ORU forced UST to 10 turnovers and scored nine points off those takeaways.

News and Notes

- Abmas has scored 2,211 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 365 three-pointer made making him second all-time in ORU history in that category.

- It was the ninth time this season the ORU bench has scored 20-plus points.
 
- Vanover has 62 blocks on the season and is second the nation in total blocks and in blocks per game.

- The Golden Eagles are 11-0 at home and have the longest home winning streak since the 2011-12 season. ORU is 6-0 in Summit League play for the first time since 2011-12.
 
- ORU is two wins shy of its 1,000th overall program win.  

Up Next
ORU will hit the road to face the North Dakota State Bison Thursday, January 19 at 7 p.m. in Fargo, North Dakota.

Original source can be found here