THE BASICS
Score: Oral Roberts 51 – South Dakota State 71
Records: ORU (5-8, 0-2); SDSU (6-7, 2-0)
Location: Mabee Center –Tulsa, Okla.

TULSA, Okla. – In the final game before heading home for the holidays, the Oral Roberts women's basketball team slipped and fell to South Dakota State, 71-51. The Golden Eagles were unable to recover from a slow start, falling to 0-2 in Summit League before hitting the road next week.
 
As has been the story for several games this season, the early minutes doomed the Golden Eagles on Wednesday night. To open the game, ORU fell into an early 20-0 hole before going on a 9-0 run of their own. Delaney Nix powered ORU through the run, providing a pair of triples. A Jackrabbit layup with 11 seconds left in the quarter pushed the SDSU lead to 13.
 
Just as was the case in the first quarter, ORU fell victim to a 10-2 run to open the second quarter as the Jackrabbit lead swelled to 21. Keni Jo Lippe knocked down four free throws in 20 seconds to provide some quick offense for ORU.
 
After halftime, South Dakota State saw their lead grow to a game-high 25 points but the Golden Eagles would not quit. After seeing the Jackrabbits push their lead to 25, Tirzah Moore and Hannah Cooper finished near the rim on consecutive possessions to start chipping away at the deficit. For the remainder of the quarter, ORU and SDSU traded buckets with the Golden Eagles trailing by 20 heading to the fourth quarter.
 
In the fourth, ORU cut the deficit to 13 with 8:00 left to play. A pair of three's from Nix and Tierney Coleman, followed by a transition layup by Tirzah Moore was the offensive highlight for the Golden Eagles on Wednesday. For nearly three and a half minutes, neither team was able to get a shot to drop before the Jackrabbits got a layup at the 2:26 mark. The Jackrabbits put the finishing touches on the performance by running clock and heading back to Brookings with a 71-51 victory.

THE LEADERS
Oral Roberts: Freshman Tirzah Moore finished with another impressive game for the Golden Eagles, scoring 18 points and pulling down eight rebounds. Faith Paramore dished out a pair of assists to lead ORU.
South Dakota:  Paige Meyer finished one assist shy of a double-double, dropping 11 points to go alongside nine assists and a split of the team-high with six rebounds.  
                                                                                                                                                  
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Over her last three games, Tirzah Moore is averaging 16.3 points and 9.3 rebounds. Moore went 8-11 from the floor on Wednesday night.
- ORU went 14-15 at the charity stripe, marking a new single-game high for this season for free throw percentage (93.3%)
- Hannah Cooper, Delaney Nix, and Keni Jo Lippe all recorded a pair of steals in the contest.
- South Dakota came into the game ranked receiving votes in the College Insider Mid-Major Poll.
- The Golden Eagles were outrebounded 39-27 in the game. Assists were 19-6 in favor of the Jackrabbits.
- SDSU led for 38:45 of the 40:00 of action. For the final 33:09, ORU and SDSU split the scoring, each dropping 51 points.
 
Up Next
After the Christmas break, ORU will be back in action on December 30 against Denver. The Golden Eagles kick off their two-game road swing in Colorado before heading to Omaha on New Year's Day.

For the latest information on ORU women's basketball, follow @ORUWBB on Twitter or go to www.ORUAthletics.com.  Fans can also receive updates on the team by downloading the new ORU Athletics app in the Google Play or App stores.