SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- Oral Roberts found the win column in Summit League play for the time with an 83-79 win over North Dakota this past Saturday with Preseason Player of the Year Issac McBride showing why he was handed that honor.
McBride scored a game-high 28 points and delivered a clutch 3-pointer in the closing seconds to prevent the Fighting Hawks from having a final possesion to potentially force overtime. The Little Rock, Ark., native was coming off a career-high 44-point performance earlier in the week that provided a jolt for the Golden Eagles' offense despite falling to North Dakota State.
McBride and company will now head back on the road to face South Dakota and South Dakota State this week as they look to continue their climb in the standings.
League-leading Omaha will also hit the road to try and keep its perfect start in tact as the Mavericks take a 4-0 league record into the Mile High City Wednesday to face a Denver squad still searching for its first conference win of the season. Three games follow Thursday with the Golden Eagles' tilt vs. the Coyotes, South Dakota State hosting North Dakota and Kansas City journeying to the Peace Garden State to take on NDSU.
St. Thomas, who shares the top spot with the Mavericks at 4-0, is off until its Saturday contest against the Pioneers in St. Paul.
AROUND THE LEAGUE
• Omaha knocked off the top two teams from the Summit League preseason poll at home to start 4-0 in conference play for the first time since 2015-16. The two wins pushed the Mavericks’ overall winning streak to six, which ties their longest at the Division I level.
• In Wednesday’s 77-58 victory over Kansas City on CBSSB, JJ White and Lance Waddles each scored 17 to pace the Mavs.
• White followed that up with a career-high 24 in the 87-80 win over SDSU, which snapped UNO’s 10-game losing skid to the Jackrabbits. He also added a season-high seven assists in the victory.
• Marquel Sutton matched White’s point total and eight rebounds to push him past the 500-board milestone for his career.
• St. Thomas kept pace with Omaha by also winning a pair of home games as those two share the top spot in the league standings.
• The Tommies edge the Jackrabbits 73-72 on Wednesday when freshman Nolan Minnesale paced the squad in scoring with 17.
• UST broke the program’s DI single-game scoring mark by outrunning South Dakota 119-104. Seven different Tommies scored double figures with Miles Barnstable leading those efforts with 28.
• NDSU bounced back from an 0-2 start at home by winning back-to-back road games to pull even at .500 in the standings. The Bison put up a season-high in points, cruising to a 110-96 win at Oral Roberts.
• Senior Jacksen Moni scored 29 points and added eight rebounds and a season-high eight assists in a win that saw NDSU bury 15 3-pointers.
• The Bison are the top 3-point shooting team in the country at 41.5 percent and rank second in makes per game from beyond the arc at 12.3.
• NDSU closed out the road swing with a 69-50 win at Denver, limiting the Pios to a season-low point total.
• The Pioneers played both games without second-leading scorer DeAndre Craig (13.0 ppg).
• Moni is leading all Summit players in overall scoring at 19.6 ppg and is second in league play at 23.0 ppg.
• ORU’s Issac McBride scored a career-high 44 in the home loss to the Bison. His point total was second most among DI players in a game this season, trailing only Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner, who had 49 in an opening-night win over UTRGV.
• McBride followed that up with a game-high 28 points in an 83-79 win over North Dakota. Freshman JoJo Moore added a career-high 26 as those two combined to go 19-for-31 in the win over UND.
• Five Coyotes reached double figures in the 119-104 loss at St. Thomas, which was USD’s lone action of the week. Sophomore Isaac Bruns led that quintet with 22 in his third career start, while Chase Forte added 21.
• North Dakota split a pair of road games, picking up its first win of league play with a 95-70 victory at Denver before falling 83-79 at Oral Roberts.
• Senior Amar Kuljuhovic put together back-to-back, 17-point performances for the Fighting Hawks, while Mier Panoam had a career-high 28 in the win at DU.
• The Jackrabbits’ dropped back-to-back road tilts as the reigning regular season and tournament champions dropped to 1-2 in the early stages of their league slate.
• Sophomore Kalen Garry led all scorers in both of those losses, putting in 19 against St. Thomas, then scoring a career-high 27 against Omaha. Garry went 9-for-13 from the field against the Mavericks and also had four assists.
• The Roos were paced by Babacar Diallo with 15 points in the loss at Omaha. The KC point guard went 7-for-11 from the field.
UPCOMING
Date | Stream/TV | Local Time
Wednesday, Jan. 15
Omaha at Denver* | SLN/ALT2 | 7 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 16
North Dakota at SDSU* | MS/SLN | 7 p.m.
Oral Roberts at South Dakota* | SLN | 7 p.m.
Kansas City at NDSU* | WDAYX/SLN | 7 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 18
Kansas City at North Dakota* | SLN | 1 p.m.
NDSU at South Dakota* | SLN | 2 p.m.
Oral Roberts at SDSU* | SLN | 4:15 p.m.
Denver at St. Thomas* | SLN | 7 p.m.
Rankings: (AP/Coaches) | * Summit League game
Key: ALT2 (Altitude TV); CBSSN (CBS College Sports Network); MS1/MS2 (Midco Sports); SLN (Summit League Network); WDAYX (WDAY Extra)
RESULTS
Wednesday, Jan. 8
Omaha 77, Kansas City 58*
St. Thomas 73, SDSU 72*
Thursday, Jan. 9
North Dakota 95, Denver 70*
NDSU 110, Oral Roberts 96*
Saturday, Jan. 11
Omaha 87, SDSU 80*
NDSU 69, Denver 50*
St. Thomas 119, South Dakota 104*
Oral Roberts 83, North Dakota 79*
* Summit League game
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