Box Score INDIANAPOLIS - Oral Roberts University never got rolling on Saturday afternoon, falling to IUPUI, 72-48, at The Jungle. The loss snaps a two-game winning streak for ORU.
ORU (10-7, 4-2 Summit League) shot just 31.1% in the game and turned the ball over 16 times. Georgia Jones led the Golden Eagles with 16 points, while Jordan Pyle added 11 points and 10 rebounds in a double-double effort.
The win is the first for IUPUI (7-11, 2-4 Summit League) over an NCAA Division I opponent since Nov. 30. The victory also snaps ORU's four-game winning streak over the Jaguars.
Katie Comello led the Jaguars with 28 points. The sophomore was 6-for-11 from three-point range.
Kerah Nelson was also a force, finishing with 18 points.
The game did not start well for Jerry Finkbeiner's team. The Golden Eagles missed their first six shots and fell into a quick hole. A fastbreak lay-up by Del'Niqua Bellamy gave IUPUI a 9-0 lead just four minutes into the game.
ORU seemed to regain some footing midway through the half, when Pyle scored to cap an 8-2 run. The basket, which came with 8:20 left in the half, cut the gap to 16-12.
But the Jaguars came alive in the half's final minutes. IUPUI ended the half on a 10-0 run to take a commanding lead into the locker room. Comello drilled a three the halftime buzzer, giving her team a 31-16 lead.
IUPUI lived at the line in the early minutes of the second half. The Jags were 8-for-8 from the line in the first four minutes of the period, and they took a 42-25 lead into the under-16 timeout.
Soon the lead was over 20 for Austin Parkinson's team. A three-pointer by Comello gave IUPUI a 50-30 advantage, and things were looking dire for the Eagles.
They never got much better. Comello got on a roll in the second half, raining down three-pointers. A long-range shot with 7:27 left made the score 61-39.
The rally ORU needed never came. Jones tried to keep ORU in the game, hitting four second half three-pointers, but the lead was never in single digits for the final 21:45 of the game.
The 24-point margin of defeat is the largest ever for ORU against IUPUI. The Golden Eagles are now 16-12 all-time against the Jaguars.
ORU will look to recover on Monday evening, when they take on Western Illinois. Tip time in Macomb, Ill. Is scheduled for 7 pm CT.