Mastodons to Battle Golden Eagles in Tulsa

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - The IPFW Mastodons return to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to take on the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles for the first time since 2012.

GAMEDAY INFORMATION
Date: Saturday, January 17 | 7 p.m. ET
Location: Tulsa, Okla. | Mabee Center (10,575)
Audio: ESPN Radio 1380 AM | Brett Rump, play-by-play
Video: ESPN3
Series History: Oral Roberts leads 9-3
Last Meeting: Oral Roberts 71, IPFW 67 | March 3, 2012 | Sioux Falls, S.D.

QUICK HITTERS
•   IPFW has put together runs of 10-0 or better in nine of its 17 games this season, with the team totaling 14 different 10-0 or better runs total on the year.
•   IPFW held Denver to just 10 rebounds in the team's victory on Thursday evening, the fourth fewest in NCAA Division I since 1996-97, and the lowest in program history.
•   IPFW's Isaiah McCray has the 11th best scoring average among schools' fifth scorers.
•   Forbes currently ranks 24th in the country in career field goal percentage among active players.
•   Isaiah McCray ranks 212th in the country in blocked shots, despite being just 6-0 tall. He is one of five guards ranked in the top 250 in the NCAA rankings.
•   IPFW was picked to finish first in the Summit League in the preseason poll of the league's head coaches, SIDs, and select media members.
•   This is the first meeting between the two teams since the 2012 Summit League Tournament quarterfinal, where the eighth seeded Mastodons narrowly fell to top seeded Oral Roberts.

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN EAGLES
Oral Roberts comes into the meeting against IPFW having won five of its last six games, and on a current three-game win streak with victories over IUPUI, Western Illinois, and Omaha.
   In the team's last game, a 102-86 win at home against Omaha on Wednesday, Korey Billbury hit 13-of-19 shots en route to a game-high 34 points, while Obi Emegano scored 23 in the winning effort. All told, four Golden Eagle players reached double-figure scoring, as Bobby Word and Jabbar Singleton added 12 and 10, respectively. Billbury added seven rebounds to lead the team, while also dishing out five assists.
   For the season, Emgano and Billbury lead the team in scoring, averaging 17.4 and 15.3 points per game, each. Word is just off of the double-figure pace with a 9.1 point per game average. Denell Henderson is the only other Golden Eagle regular averaging over five points per game at 7.6 tallies per contest.
   Billbury, one of the top rebounding guards in the Summit League, lead the team by averaging 7.2 boards per contest, while Henderson pulls down 5.3, helping ORU to a +0.4 rebounding margin on the season. Billbury and Emegano are 1-2 on the team in assists with 48 and 42, each, while Emegano leads the pair in steals 31-to-25 - also best on the team. Henderson has blocked a team-high 20 shots for the year.

LOW BOARDS
In IPFW's 69-53 win over Denver on January 8, the Mastodons allowed the Pioneers just 10 total rebounds. That total is tied for the fourth fewest in a NCAA Division I basketball game since 1996-97. Wofford held Toccoa Falls to just 7 rebounds on November 26, 2007 for the lowest during that stretch. Below are the seven fewest rebounds allowed in a game since 1996-97

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Players Mentioned

Isaiah McCray

Purdue University Fort Wayne Athletics