KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A career-high rebounding
performance from junior forward Janae
Voelker (Newton, Kan.) and a late second half rally helped the
Oral Roberts University women's basketball team rally from behind
to pick up a 58-55 victory at UMKC on Saturday afternoon.
The Golden Eagles improve to 12-14 on the season and are now 5-10
in Summit League action, while the Kangaroos fall to 11-15 overall
and 6-9 in conference play.
Voelker posted her 11th double-double this season with 27 points
and 18 rebounds, tying her career-high in points and setting a new
career-high in rebounds. Voelker now has 21 double-doubles in her
career and has scored in double-figures in 26 straight games.
Senior guard
Mariana Camargo (Blumenau, Brazil) posted 16
points for ORU, while freshman forward Jordan
Pyle chipped in 10 points. Senior center Monah
Pegorari added 10 boards to help the Golden Eagles out-rebound
the Kangaroos 41-36.
The Golden Eagles started out cold in the first four minutes of
action in the first half, as UMKC went 13-0 before ORU even scored
a point. Voelker's free throw gave the Golden Eagles their first
point at the 15:59 mark. ORU then went on a 4-1 run with a jumper
from Voelker and a layup from Pyle (Mustang, Okla.) to cut in
UMKC's lead and make it 14-5 with 14:22 to go. A three-pointer from
Voelker kept ORU to with an 11 point difference before two layups
from Camargo brought it back to a seven-point game, 14-21, with
8:04 remaining.
Two more points from Voelker kept the Golden Eagles to within
nine, 16-25, while a long three from freshman forward Cristal
Turner (Maidstone, England) made it 21-31 with 4:00 minutes to
play. The Kangaroos took its largest lead at the 2:43 mark, 37-21,
while Camargo and Voelker made the last two buckets of the first
half to take a 37-25 deficit heading into the break.
ORU started off the second half on a 4-0 run, as those were the
only points scored in the first six minutes. The Kangaroos then
went on a 8-0 run to go up 45-31 with 12:21 left, as the Golden
Eagles responded with a 9-0 run, Voelker scoring five in that
stretch, to cut the lead to five, 40-45, at the 7:38 mark. Layups
from Camargo and Voelker and two buckets from Pyle put the game at
a one-possession difference, 49-51, with 4:14 remaining.
A three-pointer from UMKC's LeAndrea Thomas put it back to a
five-point difference, as the Golden Eagles cut into that lead with
two Camargo free throws, a layup from Voelker and another bucket
from Camargo to tie everything at 55-all with 1:06 remaining. A
Pyle layup with 20 seconds remaining and a Pegorari free throw with
1.3 seconds remaining sealed the victory for ORU.
ORU shot 42.3 percent (22-52), including a 21.1 percent (4-19) from
three-point range and 52.6 percent (10-19) from the free throw
line.
The Golden Eagles scored six more points from the free throw line
and 10 more points in the paint, while UMKC shot five more
three-pointers.
UMKC shot 35.6 percent (21-59) from the field, including 33.3
percent (9-27) from behind the arc and 26.7 percent (4-15) from the
charity stripe.
The Golden Eagles continue action on Monday, Feb. 23 at Southern
Utah at 8 p.m. (CT).
-ORU-
