Kansas City, Mo. ? The UMKC men's basketball team
dropped a 75-47 home contest to Oral Roberts on Thursday night at Kemper
Arena. Freshman Nathan Balch was the
only Kangaroo player to finish in double figures, as he scored 12 points in the
contest.
UMKC opened the game by jumping out to a 3-2 lead courtesy
of a Brian Gettinger three pointer. The
lead was the team's only advantage in the game, as the Golden Eagles then scored
the next 12 points to take a 14-3 lead at the 13:26 mark.
The Kangaroos cut the margin to 10 points on a pair of
occasions in the opening stanza with the final coming at 21-11 on a Brent
Stephens jumper with 9:26 left. ORU then
used a 12-2 run over the next six minutes to stretch its lead to 20 at 33-13.
The Golden Eagles opened the second half by scoring the
first seven points to push the margin to 30 at 52-22 with 17:52 left in the
game. ORU then proceeded to stretch its
advantage to as many as 36 points (71-35) with 4:49 remaining, before the
Kangaroos scored 12-of-the final-16 points to reach the 75-47 final.
UMKC finished with a .304 (17-56) field goal percentage and
a .313 (5-16) mark from three-point land.
ORU, meanwhile, shot .473 (26-55) from the floor and .444 (8-18) from long
range. The Golden Eagles also out
rebounded UMKC, 40-32, and they finished with 13 assists to the Kangaroos'
eight.
Balch made 3-of-4 attempts from three point land en route to
his career-high performance. Junior
Kenny Simms, meanwhile, paced the team on the glass with nine caroms to go
along with seven points.
Four ORU players finished the contest in double digits.
Guard Adam Liberty led the way with 16 points, while Marchello Vealy had a
team-high nine rebounds.
UMKC (7-14, 2-6) will return to action on Saturday night
against Centenary. The game is the
second of a UMKC-CC doubleheader with the women tipping off at 4 p.m.
