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The Basics
Score: (RV) Oral Roberts 82 – South Dakota 70
Record: ORU (26-4, 17-0) – USD (11-18, 6-11)
Location: Vermillion, S.D. (Sanford Coyote Sports Center)
 
VERMILLION, S.D. – The Oral Roberts men's basketball team improved to 17-0 in Summit League play with an 82-70 win at South Dakota Thursday evening.
 
In final weekend of the regular season ORU hit the road to South Dakota looking to continue its unbeaten streak in league play. The Golden Eagles were victorious and earned their 17^th league win of the season, tying the most conference wins in a season for the program set back in 2011-12.  Connor Vanover led ORU with 19 points on the night going 8-for-10 from the field and 2-for-2 from three-point range and a free-throw. He was one of four Golden Eagles to record double-digits.
 
Oral Roberts scored the first points of the game and held the lead the entire half. The Golden Eagles started out on an 11-0 run and held South Dakota scoreless for the first 5:30 of the game. Kareem Thompson had five of ORU's first 11. Thompson hit his second three-pointer of the half to give ORU its largest lead of the half, 23-10, with 10 minutes to play. South Dakota sparked a 13-2 run to pull to within one, five minutes later. ORU never gave up the lead and went on a 9-0 run to go back up by 10. The Golden Eagle defense only allowed the Coyotes three points in the final minutes of the half and Carlos Jurgens answered with a three-pointer of his own to make it a 39-29 ORU lead at the break. Thompson led all scorers with 12 points in the first 20 minutes.
 
The Golden Eagles led by 12 with 14:55 left when the team went on a 10-0 run to go up by 22 two minutes later. The run was highlighted by a dunk by Vanover followed by a three-pointer from Max Abmas. ORU took its largest lead of the night by 27 with 8:13 to go. A quick 8-0 run by the Yotes brought it back to within 19 before Abmas hit another three to put ORU back up by 22. The Coyotes wouldn't quit and went on a 9-0 run to pull to within 13 with 1:09 to play. Thompson hit a pair of free-throws to make it a 15 point game with 30 seconds to play, but USD hit a three a few seconds later to make it a 82-70 final score. ORU shot 53.6 percent from the field in the second half and Abmas led with 11 points.
 
Abmas had 17 on the night followed by Thompson with 16. Jurgens ended with 15 and grabbed 10 rebounds for his second career double-double. The Golden Eagles have now won 23 of their last 24. Oral Roberts improves to 26-4 on the season, its best start since 1989-90 all-time. In the Division One era, it's the best start to a season dating back to 1971-72. ORU is 16-0 in Summit League play and is one of two (Eastern Washington) teams nationally still undefeated in conference play.

Individual Leaders
Oral Roberts: Vanover scored 19 points and Jurgens had 10 rebounds.

South Dakota: Tasos Kamateros had 20 points and pulled down nine rebounds.

Inside the Box Score
- ORU shot 32.3 percent from the three-point line.
 
- ORU shot 48.4 percent from the field.

- The Golden Eagles had 16 assists on 31 made baskets.

- Oral Roberts had 40 points in the paint and 10 bench points.

- ORU forced USD to 11 turnovers and scored 19 points off those takeaways.

News and Notes
- Abmas has scored 2,475 career points which puts him 4^th all-time in the ORU record book. He is the eighth player to record 2,000-plus points in ORU history. He's recorded 407 three-pointer made making him second all-time in ORU history in that category. He is No. 1 all-time in the Summit League in three-pointers made.

- For Abmas, it was his 17^th-straight double-digit game. He moved to 4^th all-time in points scored in the Summit League record book.

- Vanover has 96 blocks on the season and is second the nation in total blocks and in blocks per game.

- The 17 league wins are the most conference wins since the 2011-12 season.

- The 26 overall wins are the most wins for the program since the 2011-12 season.
 
- It's the sixth time in program history the team has won 26 or more games.
 
- The Golden Eagles are one of two teams in the nation (Eastern Washington) to remain undefeated in conference play.
 
- It's the first time ORU has gone undefeated at home since 1996-97.

- ORU is on a 13 game win streak, the nation's second longest winning streak.

Up Next
Oral Roberts closes out the regular season Saturday, February 25 at South Dakota State at 2 p.m. in Brookings, South Dakota.

For the latest information on ORU Men's Basketball, follow the Golden Eagles on Twitter and Instagram, or go to www.ORUAthletics.com. Fans can also receive updates on the team by downloading the ORU Athletics app from the App Store or Google Play Store.