Kansas City
Oral Roberts
'Roos Fall To Oral Roberts In Regular Season Finale
2/27/2010 11:06:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Kansas City, Mo. -- The UMKC men's basketball team closed out the regular season with an 89-72 home loss to Oral Roberts on Saturday night at Municipal Auditorium. Three 'Roo players finished in double digits in the defeat with Trey McKinney-Jones leading the way with 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting.
McKinney-Jones made 6-of-11 field goals and 4-of-5 free throws en route to his point total. Jay Couisnard finished with 15 points, while Spencer Johnson added 10 and a team-high eight rebounds.
UMKC got off to a solid start in the contest, as the squad jumped out to a 13-10 lead over the first four-and-a-half minutes. ORU then grabbed the lead when it scored six straight and 22-of-28 points to build its advantage to 32-19 at the 8:16 mark.
After the Golden Eagles pushed their lead to 14 points (37-23), the 'Roos used a 10-1 run to close the gap to five points (38-33) behind back-to-back triples from Kirk Korver and Johnson. ORU, however, scored the final six points to take a 44-33 lead into the break.
UMKC closed the gap to seven points by scoring 5-of-6 points coming out of the half, but Oral Roberts netted the next eight to push its advantage to 15 points (53-38) at the 16:04 mark. The 'Roos kept battling, as they again managed to trim the deficit to single digits (60-52) behind Korver's second trey of the night and a pair of Johnson free throws.
The Golden Eagles immediately answered as they stretched their lead back to double digits when Kansas City native Dominique Morrison scored the next seven ORU points to make the tally 67-54 with 8:57 to play. Oral Roberts then pushed its advantage to 17 points at the 5:56 mark, which ended up being the final margin of victory.
UMKC shot .358 (24-67) from the field and .360 (9-25) from long range, while the Golden Eagles shot .556 (30-54) from the floor and .333 (2-6) from distance. ORU dominated the action on the glass, 46-29, and made 27-of-40 free throws compared to just 15-of-17 for the 'Roos.
All five Golden Eagle starters reached double figures with Kansas City native Michael Craion leading the way with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Center Kevin Ford also posted a double-double for ORU, finishing with 16 points and 11 boards.
UMKC ends the regular season with a 12-17 overall record and a 6-12 mark in league play. Next up for the 'Roos will be The Summit League Tournament, where they will compete as the No. 8 seed against No. 1 seed Oakland on Saturday night at 6 p.m. in Sioux Falls, S.D.
