Creighton University
Oral Roberts
Second-Half Surge Lifts Men's Basketball Past Oral Roberts, 87-65
11/22/2008 4:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
OMAHA, Neb. -- The Creighton men's basketball team went on a 28-5 run midway through the second half and picked up an 87-65 win over Oral Roberts on Saturday. Creighton is now 3-0 for the 10th time in 11 years while ORU is 1-2.
Creighton led most of the first half before ORU took its first lead at 25-22 on a three-pointer by Kyron Stokes. The Golden Eagles would take a 35-33 lead into the locker room, paced by nine points each from Dominique Morrison and Robert Jarvis. Cavel Witter had 12 points in 15 minutes off the bench for CU in the first half.
Creighton opened the second half with a fury, outscoring the Golden Eagles 20-6 to open up its first double-digit lead at 53-41 with 15:18 to play. Witter drained back-to-back three-pointers and converted a breakaway lay-up to cap a 16-2 burst. Fueling the crowd was Marcus Lewis' intentional foul on a breakaway against Bluejay forward Justin Carter with 17:23 to go and the Jays up just two.
CU's run reached all the way to 28-5, pushing the lead to 65-44 with 10:39 remaining. CU's biggest lead came in the final minute, when it took a pair of 24-point leads.
Witter led CU with 25 points in 28 minutes off the bench. The sophomore reserve hit 6-of-9 shots and 4-of-5 from three-point land while also making 9-of-10 at the line. Casey Harriman scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds in 14 efficient minutes, while Booker Woodfox hit 10-of-11 free throws and finished with a dozen points one year after his last-minute three-pointer beat the Golden Eagles in Tulsa. Creighton also outrebounded the Golden Eagles, 39-29. Creighton outscored ORU 51-18 off the bench as all 11 of the 12 Jays to see court time scored.
ORU was paced by 20 points from Morrison. Lewis had 14 points and six rebounds in 33 minutes, while Jarvis had 13 points but was hounded into 4-of-15 shooting.
Creighton returns to action on Tuesday with its first road game of the season, a 7 pm contest at Arkansas-Little Rock. The game can be heard on KXSP (Big Sports 590) and will be televised by KMTV.
NOTES: Oral Roberts is coached by Scott Sutton, son of former CU coach Eddie Sutton. Scott was born in Omaha in 1970 ...Creighton head coach Dana Altman improved to 29-0 in November home games at Creighton ...Kenny Lawson Jr.'s eight rebounds were a season-high by any Bluejay player ...Creighton is 2-0 when trailing at the half this season ...Creighton has had three different 20-point scorers in the first three games for the first time in Dana Altman's tenure ...The game was the first of nine telecasts on KMTV this season ...Creighton is now 20-1 in the six-year history of Qwest Center Omaha against teams that enter with one loss or less ...Creighton has scored 80 points or more in the first three games of the year for the first time since the 2002-03 squad had four such outings en route to a 29-5 campaign ...Creighton has won 61 straight games when scoring 80 points or more, 45 straight when scoring 72 or more and 40 straight at home when scoring 68 or more ...Creighton's bench outscored ORU's 51-18 ...The season-high crowd of 16,549 pushed CU's three-game average to 16,263.
