by BROOKINGS, S.D. – The Oral Roberts women’s basketball team fell 68-55 at Summit League preseason favorite South Dakota State Saturday afternoon in Brookings, South Dakota.
In a battle among league leaders, the game started out tight with South Dakota State’s only advantage being a 19-17 lead after the first 10 minutes of play when Summit League preseason player of the year Macy Miller hit her only field goal of the game at the buzzer. Both teams shot 33.3 percent in the first period of play and Maya Mayberry led the Golden Eagles with four points. South Dakota State out-scored ORU 15-9 in the second quarter and took a 34-26 lead in to halftime. The difference in the game going in to the break were the 11 second chance points off of 12 Jackrabbit offensive rebounds.
The Golden Eagles cut the Jackrabbits lead down to five to start the second half when Jordan Gilbert hit her second three-point bucket of the game. Although ORU shot 46 percent in the third quarter, the Golden Eagles were out-scored 19-14. Five of South Dakota State’s 19 points were second chance. Both team’s scored 15 points in the final period of play. The Jackrabbits took their largest lead of the day by 17 with just under seven minutes to go. ORU cut the deficit down to eight with four minutes to play before falling by 13.
Gilbert created momentum by having three charge attempts in the game and capitalizing on all three. She finished with nine points, three rebounds and went 2-for-2 from beyond the arc. Lakota Beatty (Caddo/Lakota/Gros Ventre) led the Golden Eagles with 15 points and shot 50 percent from the floor with four assists. Rylie Torrey had her second consecutive game with double-digits points finishing with 10. Torrey also led the team in the rebounding category with six. Overall, ORU finished the day going 35 percent from the field and 37 percent from long-range.
All-Summit League first team preseason selection, Myah Selland, led the Jackrabbits with 19 points going 6-for-15 overall. Selland also had six offensive boards. Tylee Irwin and Tagyn Larson both grabbed eight rebounds. South Dakota State went 33 percent from the field and 19 percent from the three-point line. The Jackrabbits had a total of 23 second chance points to ORU’s zero and made six more free throws on eight more attempts.
THE LEADERS
Oral Roberts: Beatty led the team with 15 points and Torrey had six rebounds.
South Dakota State: Selland scored 19 points while Irwin and Larson had eight rebounds each.
