Women's Basketball 1/24/2009 12:00:00 AM

Golden Eagles Defeat Southern Utah, 64-59, Saturday

TULSA, Okla. – Junior forward Janae Voelker (Newton, Kan.) and freshman guard Georgia Jones (Manchester, England) helped give the Oral Roberts women's basketball team a 64-59 victory over Southern Utah Saturday afternoon in the Mabee Center.

ORU improves to 10-9 on the year and 3-5 in Summit League action, while SUU falls to 6-13 overall and 2-6 in conference play. The Golden Eagles are now 14-10 all-time against the Thunderbirds, winning the past two straight games.

Jones scored a game-high 21 points to lead the Golden Eagles, as she extended her double-digit scoring streak to seven games, while Voelker posted her eighth double-double on the season with 12 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Senior guard Mariana Camargo (Blumenau, Brazil) chipped in 11 points, six rebounds and five assists and freshman center Dominique Allen (Birmingham, England) played and started in her first career game for ORU, tallying four points.

Voelker tipped in a bucket to give ORU its first lead of the game, 4-2, with 18:26 in the first half, while a three-pointer from Jones put the Golden Eagles up 7-5 at the 17:39 mark. After five ties and eight lead changes in the next 10 minutes of action, ORU took a 12-2 run to go up 32-20 with 3:22 to play.

The Thunderbirds dug into that lead with a 4-0 run but another three-pointer from Jones kept the Golden Eagles up by 11, 35-24, with 1:16 left. Back-to-back three-pointers from freshman forward Cristal Turner (Maidstone, England) and junior guard Kelly Kindell (Schulter, Okla.) put ORU up, 41-27, heading into the break.

Southern Utah took advantage of the Golden Eagles' scoring drought in the opening six minutes of the second half, cutting ORU's lead from 14 down to three, 38-41. Camargo finally put the Golden Eagles on the scoreboard in the second half with a layup and then made a jumper to keep ORU up by five, 45-40, with 12:22 remaining. Two free throws from senior forward Monah Pegorari (Sao Paulo, Brazil) gave the Golden Eagles at 47-40 lead, before SUU took runs of 6-2 and 5-2 to tie up the game for the final time, 51-51, with 6:52 to play.

A Jones three-pointer at 6:37 kept ORU safe for the moment, while a Pegorari layup at the 5:20 mark put the Golden Eagles back to a two possession game, 58-53. ORU made its final six points on free throws, as ORU shot 75.0 percent (12-16) from behind the charity stripe on the afternoon.

The Golden Eagles shot 37.7 percent (23-61) from the field, including 50.0 percent (6-12) from three-point range.

ORU out-rebounded SUU, 39-37, as the Golden Eagles scored 20 points off turnovers compared to the Thunderbirds 10. ORU also scored 14 points from its bench, while SUU's bench chipped in nine.

The Thunderbirds shot 42.9 percent (24-56) from the field, including 33.3 percent (5-15) from behind the arc and 54.5 percent (6-11) from the free throw line.

The Golden Eagles continue action at home on Monday, Jan. 26, when UMKC comes to town for a 7:05 p.m. tip-off in the Mabee Center.

-ORU-

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