Kansas City
16-15,10-6Summit League
Oral Roberts
11-18,5-11Summit League
Roos Ride Defense to Sixth-Straight Win in Regular Season Finale
3/3/2024 5:42:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Kansas City took down the Golden Eagles and claimed the #2 seed at the Summit League Championships
TULSA, Okla. - Kansas City Men's Basketball (16-15, 10-6 Summit) and Oral Roberts (11-18, 5-11 Summit) both still had a lot to play for entering the final day of the regular season. A win for KC meant the #2 seed at the Summit League Tournament and a quarterfinal game against Denver, who the Roos swept in the regular season. A loss for the Roos meant the #4 seed, and a game against NDSU, who won both regular season match ups. Oral Roberts would make it out of the first round play-in game with a win.
Kansas City was undeterred by the pressure, as the Roos came out firing and led from wire-to-wire, claiming a 71-54 win and extending its winning streak to six-straight games to end the regular season. The Roos used staunch defense to stifle the Golden Eagles, holding ORU to 36% shooting from the field and 29% shooting from three-point range. Dominance in the paint led to 38 points, and KC turned 14 ORU turnovers into 14 points.
Jamar Brown and Cameron Faas scored the first two buckets of the day for the Roos and continued to lead the charge the rest of the way, scoring 14 points each. Allen David Mukeba Jr. finished with 13 for his second-straight game in double-figures, while Jayson Petty posted 12 points and a career-high nine rebounds. Khristion Courseault led the offense, dishing out six assists in 29 minutes of play.
KEY MOMENTS | HIGHLIGHTS
- 1H - 15:44 / 6-0 | Three-pointers by Brown and Faas on the first two possessions of the day gave Kansas City a quick lead, and the Roos held ORU 0-of-4 from the field with one turnover to enter the first media timeout scoreless.
- 1H - 8:38 / 18-12 | Kansas City was held without points for nearly three minutes, but allowed ORU to score just two points in that same time span and held on to the lead. Tyler Andrews knocked down a three to end the drought and match the Roos' largest lead to that point.
- 1H - 2:54 / 29-18 | The Roos expanded their lead to double-digits with a six-point run, capped by an inbounds pass from Courseault to Petty that resulted in an easy layup. The Roos would maintain an eight-point lead entering halftime.
- 2H - 15:31 / 40-28 | Faas scored five-straight for Kansas City as the Roos opened up a 12-point lead early in the second half. His second bucket, a three-pointer, sparked a 12-point run by the Roos, the largest of the game.
- 2H - 12:26 / 49-28 | Mukeba took the ball on the left side of the bucket with time running down on the shot clock, making a spin move towards the hoop and scoring a hook shot. His bucket capped KC's 12-point run and expanded the lead above 20 points.
- 2H - 7:54 / 57-35 | The Golden Eagles drew back within 16, but the Roos responded with six-straight points, including a pair of buckets from Brown.
- 2H - 1:59 / 67-47 | Petty got to the rim for the Roos' last field goal of the day, allowing the Roos to coast to their sixth-straight victory.
STATS TO NOTE
- Kansas City's six consecutive wins is the most in program history to finish the regular season. The previous record was four, accomplished in 2001-02 and again in 2019-20.
- The Roos end the regular season in a tie with North Dakota for second place, but own the tiebreaker and will claim the #2 seed in Sioux Falls next week. This ties the best finish in program history: KC has ended the regular season in second place three times (1999-2000, 2004-05, 2014-15), and has claimed the second seed at the conference tournament twice (2004-05, 2014-15).
- Kansas City finished the day shooting 26-of-55 (47.3%) from the field, including 20-of-32 (62.5%) shooting from two-point range.
- After being held to 0-of-7 three-point shooting in the last two games combined, Faas shot 3-of-5 from deep today for his 22nd multi-three game of the season.
- Courseault finished with a game-high six assists, his 14th game this season with five-plus assists, all of which have come since Dec. 9. According to Sports Reference, that is the most games with five-plus assists in a single season by a Kansas City player since at least 2010-11.
- The Roos held Oral Roberts to just 36.0% shooting from the field, the Golden Eagles' second-lowest single-game field goal percentage this season and Kansas City's lowest opponent field goal percentage of Summit League play.
POSTGAME INTERVIEWS
Coach Marvin Menzies/Tyler Andrews
UP NEXT
The Roos open postseason play in Sioux Falls, S.D. on Saturday evening, playing against #7 seed Denver at 8:30 p.m. Kansas City defeated the Pioneers in both regular season meetings, winning by an average of 15.0 points.
