Box Score
TULSA, Okla. - In a battle for first-place in the Summit League, IUPUI dropped a 64-63 decision at Oral Roberts on Thursday night at the Mabee Center. Junior Gary Patterson missed a three in the closing seconds and freshman John Ashworth was unable to putback the miss as time expired.
Junior George Hill led four Jaguars in double-digits with 18 points while Patterson added 15. ORU's Robert Jarvis led all scorers with 21 points off the bench, hitting six of his nine field goal attempts. IUPUI (13-4, 5-1) was without the services of senior swingman Austin Montgomery, who was serving a one-game suspension handed down by the NCAA.
"I thought we played hard, but we didn't always play the smartest," IUPUI head coach Ron Hunter said. "We were missing an All-Conference player in Austin, and that's 13 points a game. At this level, that's hard to make up.
"We'll be okay though. We still have a chance to win this league - all they did was hold serve."
IUPUI led for the majority of the first half before the Golden Eagles closed on a 6-0 run to take a 33-31 lead to the break. ORU's Yemi Ogunoye opened the second half with a steal and dunk as the Golden Eagles refused to let the Jaguars climb in front. IUPUI got within one at 37-36 when Billy Pettiford sank a 15-foot jumper, but ORU (11-5, 6-0) responded with a brief 6-1 spurt. More importantly, Hill picked up his third and fourth personal fouls during the rally, forcing him to the bench for over four minutes.
IUPUI trailed 51-43 when Hunter was forced to reenter the Summit League's Preseason Player of the Year with 9:31 to play.
The Jaguars caught a break in its effort to get back in the game when Adam Liberty was whistled for a personal and technical foul with 6:12 to play. Patterson and Hill both swished two free throws, making it 56-53.
ORU stretched its lead out to 64-59 at the free throw line before IUPUI furiously worked for an opportunity for the win. After a Kelvin Sango turnover, Jon Avery dropped in a layup off an inbounds play to make it 64-61 with 1:51 left.
Jarvis missed a three at the other end and Hill raced ahead in transition to make it 64-63 with 74 ticks left. IUPUI got the stop it needed when Marcus Lewis missed an open layup with 49 seconds left.
Hill had a short jumper hit the back iron with 22 seconds left, but the Jags retained possession. After a 30-second timeout, Hill worked one-on-one before pitching to an open Patterson, who misfired on his final attempt of the evening.
"Usually when we put the ball in George's hands, good things happen," Hunter said. "We got a good look, it just didn't go down. Our kids are pretty disappointed, but we need to put this one behind us."
Avery closed with 12 points while Pettiford had 11 points and a game-high eight rebounds. Ashworth had three points in his first career start in place of Montgomery. IUPUI outrebounded the bigger Golden Eagles 29-25 in defeat, thanks to Pettiford's eight and Drew Conner's six.
Marchello Vealy was the only other ORU player in double-digits with 13points on 5-of-5 shooting for the victors. As a team, ORU shot 51.2 percent from the floor, while holding IUPUI to just 44.9 percent.
"Now we've got to get prepared for a really good Centenary team and hopefully get a road split," Hunter said.
The win was ORU's fourth straight over IUPUI and the reigning league champ's eighth in the past nine meetings between the two schools.
IUPUI will fly to Shreveport on Friday and prepare to face Centenary in the Gold Dome on Saturday. Tip time is 6:30 p.m. EST as Greg Rakestraw will call the action on Freedom 95.9 FM.
