ORU Heading Back to NCAA Tourney as Southland Champion - Mar 18, 2013

KATY, Texas The new kids on the block are the now the best.

Oral Roberts, which joined the Southland Conference last summer, has punctuated its first season in the league with a 72-66 win over Sam Houston State to win the womens tournament and earn an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.

Its been a very tough journey and weve learned a lot of lessons, and weve learned them the hard way, but it made our team who we are today, said Oral Roberts senior forward Kevi Luper (5'10''-G-90), who scored a game-high 20 points en route to earning the tournaments most outstanding player award.

The Golden Eagles road to victory began to come clear when senior Savanna Buck who played three years at Katy High School before graduating from nearby Tomball scored the go-ahead basket with 2:24 remaining. Bucks basket was the 10th and final lead change in a game that lived up to expectations between top-seed Oral Roberts (18-12) and second-seed Sam Houston State (18-14).

First-year head coach Misti Cullen then watched her defense preserve the victory, holding the Bearkats without a basket for the final 2:59, including a momentum-swinging blocked shot from 6-foot-3-inch junior Sarah Shelton in the final 90 seconds.

Wed been talking about being the aggressor on defense for the last week or so, said Golden Eagles senior guard Jaci Bingham, who was also named to the all-tournament team. When we made the effort to really pressure their point guard, things really started to turn around for us.

The Bearkats held a 45-41 lead at the 11:15 mark of the second half before the Golden Eagles responded with a 7-0 spurt during the next 1:51. Oral Roberts opened a 59-54 edge on a Shelton basket with 7:43 left, yet were unable to break away from a resilient Sam Houston State squad.

Playing as a much different team instead of the one that lost 90-40 to Oral Roberts on February 14, the Bearkats stormed back and regained the lead at 55-54 with 5:03 left. The two teams engaged in a tug of war which saw neither squad give in until the final minutes.

Its exactly what I expected, Cullen said. It was a great final, and it was a great showing of the strength of Southland Conference womens basketball.

I thought they came out (and) battled, Bearkats coach Brenda Welch-Nichols said of her team. They did everything we asked them to.

The defeat put a mild damper on a season which saw Sam Houston earn a share of the regular-season title for the first time. The Bearkats will likely see their season extended by participating in the Womens National Invitational Tournament, a long way from when Welch-Nichols took over the reins seven years ago.

They (Oral Roberts) have some experience in going to tournaments and being in those situations, Welch-Nichols said. This is something our kids are learning how to go into tournament time, learn to play, learn to win at this, and I think were going to get better at it.

Luper and Bingham were joined on the all-tournament team by Sam Houstons Angela Beadle (6'3''-C) and Sequeena Thomas (6'0''-F), while McNeese States Ashlyn Baggett (5'6''-G-90) rounded out the team.

All-Tournament Team
Kevi Luper, Oral Roberts (MVP)
Jaci Bigham (5'6''-G-91), Oral Roberts
Angela Beadle, Sam Houston State
Sequeena Thomas, Sam Houston State
Ashlyn Baggett, McNeese State

Courtesy of Southland

Southland Conf. Tournament Final: Oral Roberts - Sam Houston St. 72-66
Southland Conf. Tournament Semifinals:
Sam Houston St. - Lamar 67-61
Oral Roberts - McNeese St. 79-66

All-Southland Conf. 1st Team 2012-2013
#s#	Herbert	Loyd	Luper	Thomas	Martin	#e#5