Last Second Long Ball Lifts ORU Over UALR

The Oral Roberts Golden Eagles topped the University of Arkansas-Little Rock Monday night thanks to an unbelievable last second shot.

Oral Roberts tied the game at 55 off of two free throws by Warren Niles. With 2.7 seconds left Damen Bell-Holter caught the ball and launched a missile of a pass from the opposite side's three point line toward the goal that banked in to lift the Golden Eagles to the 58-55 win.

"I think he was 10 feet behind the half court line, said head coach Scott Sutton. "He caught it inside the three point line and took a couple dribbles. I would say it was a good 60-footer probably. It was a line drive and I am still in shock that it actually went in."

Despite the miraculous finish, Oral Roberts struggled with turnovers early on in the game and seemed completely out of sync offensively.

With five minutes left in the first, UALR had its biggest lead of the game at 11 points and the Golden Eagles had 10 turnovers. ORU dug itself into a hold and went more than eight minutes without a field goal.

At the break the Trojans led 32-24 and D'Andre Williams led all scorers with 16 of UALR's points.

The play of Roderick Pearson was the story of the second half as the Golden Eagles battled back and chipped away at the Trojans lead.

Five minutes in, a Pearson layup cut the lead to two points and after five more minutes of play Pearson netted another field goal to make it a one point game at 45-44.

From there, ORU would have at least seven different opportunities to take the lead, but couldn't capitalize.

Three missed three-pointers and a couple of field goals left the Golden Eagles trailing 52-51 with just under a minute left to play.

UALR's Williams fouled ORU's Pearson which sent him to the line for a shot to take the lead. Pearson made both free throws to put ORU on top 53-52, but Williams answered on the other end of the floor with a jumper for the Trojans to take back the one point lead.

Eventually the Trojans fouled with three seconds left to play which sent Warren Niles to the line. He made both free throws to knot the game at 55.

That's when the ball was in bounded and caught by Bell-Holter who launched the last second hail-Mary attempt that somehow banked and went in to give ORU the three-point win.

Pearson paced Oral Roberts with 20 points, five assists and three rebounds. Bell-Holter finished with a double-double tallying 12 points and 11 rebounds along with four blocked shots.

"Pearson was unbelievable in the second half," said Sutton. "There's a lot of credit to go around."

ORU shot 40 percent from the field in the game and despite the early turnovers, managed a better second half en-route to the victory.

"It's still shocking and I think Dominique said it best in the locker room that the basketball gods were with us on that one," said Sutton.

The Trojans were led by Williams who netted 22 points along with four steals and three rebounds. The loss moves UALR to 3-8 on the year.

"We won't remember the first half of that game, but we will remember the end," added Sutton. "Bottom line is that we have to get better. We can't afford to dig ourselves into holes like this. We have to toughen up a little bit, but this game will go a long ways."

Oral Roberts moves to 7-3 on the season and will take the court again Thursday, Dec. 15 on the road against Gonzaga at 8 p.m.