Larson Sets Career-High in Win at Oral Roberts

Saturday, January 24

Tulsa, Okla.

7:00 PM

South Dakota State University

Oral Roberts

1/24/2015 11:32:00 PM | Men's Basketball

By: SDSU Sports Info

TULSA, Okla. – South Dakota State senior Cody Larson shook off a slow start on Saturday at Oral Roberts to score a career-high 27 points, and added a game-high 12 rebounds to lead the Jackrabbits to a sixth straight win with a 76-72 victory over the Golden Eagles.

SDSU closes the first half of Summit League play with a 15-7 overall record and a 6-2 mark in the league, while ORU falls to an even 10-10 overall and to 4-3 in league play.

“I'm just super proud of our kids, because we just didn't get off to a good start again, defensively we just weren't very good to start the game, then we started guarding,” head coach Scott Nagy said. “We're playing good enough defense, we're just not rebounding the basketball, particularly on the defensive end.”

The Jackrabbits won the tip and scored on their first possession, but the Golden Eagles came right back with a 15-6 run to open up an early 15-8 lead six minutes into the contest.

That's when Larson, who started 0 for 5 from the field, began to heat up, scoring 16 straight points for the Jackrabbits as part of a 22-11 SDSU run that ended with the Jackrabbits leading 30-26.

The Jackrabbits would increase that lead to as many as five points at 25-20 with 6 minutes, 10 seconds left in the half on back-to-back buckets from Larson, who made five in a row after the cold start, including a pair of 3-point plays.

From there, ORU got things going again, closing the half on a 10-4 run after Zach Horstman beat the halftime buzzer to cut the Golden Eagle lead to 36-34 at the break.

SDSU scored the first five points of the second half to take an early 39-36 lead, only to see ORU come back to for the first of three second half ties at 41-41 less than four minutes into the frame.

The Jacks didn't trail again until the Golden Eagles forced the second of three second half lead changes at 48-47, but the Jacks forces the final lead change on their next possession, a Jake Bittle jumper with 11:52 left that put them up 49-48.

The lead would grow to as many as seven points on two occasions, the last being 67-60 with 5:14 remaining, when the hosts made one last charge, starting with 3-pointers on back-to-back triples to cut the lead to 67-66 just over a minute later.

A Bixby Okla., native playing in his home state for the first time, Bittle answered with a layup to push the lead back to three, and the Jacks made just enough free throws down the stretch to secure the win, the team's first inside the Mabee Center.

Deondre Parks joined both Larson in Bittle in double figures, finished with 18 points, with Bittle adding 13, all in the second half.

SDSU shot an even 50 percent for the game, 27 of 54, with a 4 of 11 mark, from 3-point range, but the Jacks shot 61 percent in the second half, 14 of 23, and 3 of 5 from long range. ORU shot 41 percent in the game overall, 26 of 63, and went 10 of 25 from distance, 40 percent.

Obi Emeganao led the Golden Eagles with 19 points , with Korey Billbury adding 15 points in the loss.

The Jackrabbits look to make it seven in a row on Wednesday, when they host Omaha inside Frost Arena at 7 p.m.

NOTES: Oral Roberts leads the all-time series with South Dakota State 8-5 and 5-1 at the Mabee Center, where the teams played in front of a crowd of 4,509 … The Jackrabbits and Golden Eagles met for the first time since Feb. 2, 2012 and for the first time in Tulsa, Okla., since Jan. 7, 2012 … SDSU improves to 2-5 when trailing at the half, to 4-6 on the road, to 6-0 when shooting at least 50 percent and to 5-1 when scoring at least 70 points … SDSU's 11 shots from 3-point range marked a season-low … Larson's previous career-high of 24 points came at home against Howard on Nov. 25, 2013 … Larson's fifth double-double of the season gives him 11 for his career … Larson scored at least 20 points for the second time this season and for the fifth time in his career … SDSU won its first game this season when Larson posted a double-double … the Jackrabbits win snapped a 12-game home winning streak by Oral Roberts