Purdue Fort Wayne
Oral Roberts University
Summit League Run Ends Against No. 1 Oral Roberts
3/10/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 10, 2008
Fort Wayne, IN - The No. 5 IPFW Mastodons nearly pulled off their second upset of the 2008 Summit League Basketball Tournament on Monday. The Mastodons didn't trail in the contest until their were just seven minutes remaining, and fell to top-seeded Oral Roberts, 58-42.
The Mastodons (13-18), fresh off an upset of No. 4 Southern Utah in the Summit quarterfinals, controlled the first half from the opening tip.
Senior Jaraun Burrows got the 'Dons going with just his third 3-point basket of the season.
On successive jumpers by junior David Carson and senior Demetrius Johnson, IPFW opened the game on a 7-0 run.
ORU forward Shawn King kept the Golden Eagles close, scoring the ball inside to cut IPFW's lead to just three, and on a jumper by senior guard Adam Liberty, Oral Roberts tied the game at 13 with 5:04 left in the opening session.
IPFW would go on an 11-0 run at that point.
Freshman Ben Botts drilled a pair of triples, and Burrows went coast-to-coast for a slashing layup. The Bahamas native finished off the run with another layup inside, and the 'Dons led, 24-13 with just 1:31 left to play.
ORU closed the half with two straight layups, one by senior forward Yemi Ogunoye and one from junior guard Robert Jarvis to cut the halftime lead to 24-17.
For Jarvis, it was his first action since in three-games. He injured his ankle in a loss to Creighton back on February 23.
For IPFW, it was the second lowest point total allowed by a team at half this year (15-Centenary 2/7).
While it was Jarvis' only bucket of the first half, he would come up huge for ORU in the second half.
IPFW continued to play with a cushion until Jarvis nailed his first triple at the 16:00 mark drawing the Golden Eagles to within one.
IPFW responded with baskets by Burrows, senior point guard Demetrius Johnson, and senior guard Chris Perkins.
However, Oral Roberts got an old-fashioned 3-point play from Liberty, and took their first lead of the game on a layin by junior forward Marcus Lewis, 40-39 at the 7:08 mark.
IPFW briefly tied it on a foul shot from Johnson, but from that point, ORU closed the game out on an, 18-2 run that included 11 points from Jarvis.
While they shot just 28.6% in the first half, Oral Roberts turned it up to 43.3% in the second half.
They outrebounded IPFW 45-30, 15 of those came on the offensive glass.
Neither team were sloppy with the ball. ORU turned it over just seven times, IPFW gave it away only nine.
Burrows led the Mastodons in his final game in Blue and White with a double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds.
Scott and Botts added six.
Jarvis led the Golden Eagles (23-8) with 19 points.
Lewis had 12, while King recorded a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Oral Roberts advances to The Summit League Championship game for the fourth straight year. The Golden Eagles are two-time defending tournament champions.
They will face either No. 3 Oakland or No. 2 IUPUI.
~Dons~
