The Basics
Score: No. 1 Oral Roberts 96, No. 9 North Dakota 80
Records: Oral Roberts (28-4, 18-0 SL), North Dakota (13-20, 6-12 SL)
Location: Denny Sanford PREMIER Center - Sioux Falls, S.D.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- Top-seeded Oral Roberts coasted to the quarterfinals of the 2023 Summit League Men's Basketball Tournament, defeating No. 9 seed North Dakota 96-80 Saturday at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center.
Redshirt senior Carlos Jurgens equaled his season-high 21 points to lead four Golden Eagles in double figures. Classmate Connor Vanover added 19 as the 7-foot-5 forward went 9-for-11 from the field. Summit League Player of the Year Max Abmas made four triples and chipped in with 14 and had a game-high six assists. Kareem Thompson rounded out ORU's double-digit scorers with 15. He also added five assists.
ORU led 32-22 at the 7:58 mark and had that lead up to 25 over the next five minutes as UND went scoreless. The teams exchanged baskets down the stretch of the half, but the Golden Eagles would take a 56-31 advantage in halftime after shooting 57.9 percent from the floor.
UND scored the final nine points of the contest to get the final deficit under 20 for a team that won six of its last nine games after starting League play 1-10. Five Fighting Hawks reached double figures. Freshman B.J. Omot led that group with 15, while freshman Treysen Eaglestaff and junior Tsotne Tsartsidze both had 11. Junior Matt Norman and graduate student Mitchell Sueker tossed in 10 points a piece.
The Golden Eagles move on to play the winner of the Western Illinois-St. Thomas matchup in Monday's first semifinal at 6 p.m. CT.
Turning Point
Leading by 10 midway through the first half, ORU went on a 15-0 run to more than double its advantage and
Inside the Box Score
- Both teams shot better than 50 percent from the floor as UND finished with a 53 percent clip (32-for-60) and ORU registered a 51 percent clip (37-for-73).
- The Golden Eagles committed just two turnovers, while UND had 15. ORU turned those UND miscues into 18 points, while the Fighting Hawks had zero points off those two ORU mistakes.
- ORU senior Carlos Jurgens equaled his season-high with 21 points to pace four Golden Eagles in double figures.
News & Notes
- The Golden Eagles advanced to the semifinals for the fourth consecutive year and won the tournament played at the Pentagon in 2021.
- Abmas surpassed 2,500-career points and moved into third place on the Summit League's all-time scoring charts after scoring 14 points vs. the Fighting Hawks. He needs four points to move past former Golden Eagle Caleb Green, who ended his career at ORU with 2,504 points.
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