Ace Hunt
GoSycamores.com

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Indiana State used one final scoring push in a back-and-forth contest to down Oral Roberts on Sunday afternoon in front of 3,357 fans at Hulman Center by the score of 60-54.

ISU improved to 6-3 on the season while Oral Roberts dropped to 6-5.

ISU battled back from down by a point at the half to take a 32-30 lead on a driving lay-up by Jake Kelly with just over 15 minutes left in the contest. ORU answered with an 8-0 run for a 38-32 lead until Rashad Reed drained his first 3-pointer of the game to cut the Golden Eagles' advantage down to 38-35.

Reed knotted the score at 38 all with his second 3-pointer in as many trips down the floor following a steal by Brant Leitnaker on the defensive end as the clock ticked below 12 minutes to go.

ISU continued its scoring three points at a time when Marshall drained back-to-back triples to knot the score again at 44 with just under eight minutes to go. ORU had taken several possessions to rebuild a its six point lead. With those two 3-pointers, Marshall matched his season-high of 15 points set earlier in the season against Colorado State.

The advantage was totally erased and then some when Dwayne Lathan scored on a driving basket with 7:30 remaining for ISU's first lead in 11 minutes at 46-44. The Sycamore advantage grew to its largest of the second half, 48-44, with a tip-in by Isiah Martin following the under eight minute media timeout.

ORU responded with its own 6-0 run on a pair of 3-pointers to retake the lead at 50-48 with 4:40 on the clock.

Kelly gave ISU the lead in what became a second half back-and-forth affair with his first 3-pointer of the game for the 51-50 lead. After the Eagles scored for its own one-point advantage, the Sycamores took control back with a jumper by Lathan for a 53-52 lead with three and half left in the game. The bucket not only gave the Sycamores a late lead, but it also put Lathan into double figures scoring for the seventh time in his eight games played, tied for the team lead with Marshall who also scored over 10 points for the seventh time this season with his (15) points.

After an ORU turnover, Lathan continued his late game scoring barrage with a 3-pointer in the corner for the 56-52 lead with 2:45 on the clock.

The Golden Eagles got a bucket on their end for a 56-54 lead, but ORU fouled Lathan and sent him to the line. He converted both for a 58-54 lead with 1:24 to go. A blocked shot and rebound by Martin as well as a breakaway lay-up by Reed gave ISU a 60-54 lead that they would not lose.

The Sycamore defense, which clamped down for most of the last four minutes of the game, held one more time as Lathan corralled a steal to cement the victory.

Lathan's 16 point outing paced ISU as he added seven rebounds. Marshall scored 15 and tacked on a season-high eight assists in 37 minutes of action.
The Sycamores nicked the Golden Eagles inside, outscoring them in the paint by a 24-22 margin. Turnovers were nearly even in the contest, but the Sycamores scored 15 points off of 13 ORU miscues while the Golden Eagles could only muster eight off of ISU turnovers.

Indiana State grabbed nine offense rebounds and made ORU pay for them by recording 13 second chance points.

Oral Roberts was paced in scoring by Dominique Morrison, who scored 17 points.

The Sycamores held the Golden Eagles to just 19-of-52 shooting from the field, a 36.5 percent mark. After hitting just one 3-pointer in the first half, ISU drained six more after halftime to finish the game with seven, paced by three from Marshall.

The Sycamores opened the game on a 9-0 run which began with a long jumper by Marshall, who followed that up with an even longer 3-point attempt for a 5-0 advantage. A drive by Kelly gave ISU a 7-0 lead and then a Dwayne Lathan putback of his own missed attempt staked ISU to the lead.

Oral Roberts was able to sneak back into the contest after the initial run and tied the contest at 16 until Aaron Carter drove to the basket for an easy lay-up and an 18-16 lead.

ISU led the opening half for all but the final two seconds, holding a 26-25 lead as ORU held the ball on its last possession. The Golden Eagles took their first lead of the game on a put back of a missed shot just before the buzzer to go into the half up 27-26.

Indiana State returns to action on Saturday, December 19 when they travel to Toledo for the Bracketbuster return game from last season. Tipoff is slated for 7:05 p.m. (ET) and can be heard live on The Crock 92.7FM as well as online at crock927.com.

Oral Roberts at Indiana State
Sunday, Dec. 13, 2009
Postgame Press Conference

Indiana State Head Coach Kevin McKenna
Opening Statement
"I thought our guys competed. We talked all week about competing and playing every possession in practice like it was game seven of the finals. I thought we competed better defensively and really fought hard. It wasn't always pretty at the offensive end. We had some good, bright points offensively execution-wise. We had some other flat times in the game. I thought our guys did a good job of being coached in the second half. We talked about picking up the tempo, trying to take a charge. Rashad (Reed) took a huge charge that turned into an 8-0 run, and I thought that's what carried us. Harry (Marshall) made some great dishes and passes down the stretch."

On Indiana State's defense
"I think our guys are doing a better job of understanding those types of things - player strengths and playing off their guy when they can and being in the right spots and taking strengths away. They had a couple of guys on their team who have strong tendencies, and early on they got a couple of them. As the game wore on, our guys did a better job of taking those strengths away."

On junior forward Isiah Martin
"He had a couple of good blocks, a couple rebounds and just basically played a good game. Like I tell the guys all the time, don't get down on yourself, don't get disappointed, don't be disappointed. When you do get an opportunity, be ready and make the most. Today Isiah was ready and made the most of it. That'll probably give him another chance and another opportunity in our next game. When he does, hopefully he'll be ready and step up like he did today."

On using the zone offense
"We haven't spent a lot of time working on our zone offense, and that has to change here this week. We need to make sure our guys are solid with that, because the next couple of games, I know there's some zone that will be played by both teams. We have to be ready for that. I think our guys are good shooters and understanding where we need to be. We just have to get more fluid with it and against a zone, eventually you just have to make shots, and we started making a few today."

On Dwayne Lathan and Harry Marshall's play
"Dwayne and Harry have a good feel for each other. When Harry penetrates, Dwayne does a good job of finding an open spot. (Dwayne) is an athletic, instinctive basketball player, and he seems to find the ball a lot because he's athletic and moves. Harry made a nice shot in the corner there for him, and Dwayne stepped up and made the three."

Indiana State senior guard Harry Marshall
On ISU's defense
"Defense was a big key tonight. I think the biggest thing is that we outrebounded them by two. They normally outrebound teams by seven, so us winning the boards by two is really us winning the boards by nine. I think that was a big help. Coach told us at halftime that we need to pressure a little more and pick up full-court, so defense and our full-court pressure is what helped us."

"Give credit to Dwayne (Lathan). He's an athletic guy, a slasher. Him being athletic helps. You can just throw it to the top of the square and not only where he can go get it."

On the ebb and flow of the offense
"If we miss a shot or have a turnover, or our offense starts stalling a little bit, I think it's key for our defense to pick up and keep playing along. We've shown it in a couple of games, when our offense isn't going, we'll let down on defense. In our wins so far, when our offense stalls, our defense has stayed right there or picked up a little bit."

Indiana State sophomore guard Dwayne Lathan
On working on-court with Harry Marshall
"It's not only me and Harry, but all of us. Our team chemistry is just getting better and better as we go. Everyone just knows what the others will do. Harry knows when he's driving, I'm cutting to the basket. Or I know if I'm driving, he's fighting up. We're just making the extra pass and getting everyone involved."

Oral Roberts Head Coach Scott Sutton
Opening Statement
"We played basically the whole second half with five scholarship guys. We played a walk-on, (Michael) Fletcher, 34 minutes. Heading into this game, he had played 42 for his career. We had a chance down the stretch. We missed some easy shots. We gave up containment late, down two, and we had to get a stop. They feed (Dwayne) Lathan, and he hits two free throws. But give them credit. We had a couple of six-point leads, and every time we got it up to six, they came back and hit back-to-back threes. They made shots."

On playing with Indiana State
"We put ourselves in position to win. When (Michael) Craion gets his fourth foul early in the second half and we had to go big, it forced us to play zone. I thought we did a good job, and we had the game right where we needed to be. We had a chance to win with under two minutes left. The other night against Missouri, we made plays, got stops when we had to, made big-time shots when we had to. Tonight, we just couldn't do it. Whether it was fatigue or their defense or whatever it is, we couldn't get it done."