West Central Reporter

Western Illinois can not keep up at Oral Roberts

 It was too much Max Abmas on Thursday as the Golden Eagle star scored 30 of his game-high 37 points in the first half as Oral Roberts topped Western Illinois 87-63 inside the Mabee Center in Tulsa.
 
Abmas was on fire, making 12-16 from the floor, 7-10 from three as ORU handed Western Illinois a loss that dropped the Leathernecks to 9-8 overall and 2-4 in the Summit League.
 
ORU had it going early going 18-38 from the floor and 8-18 from three in the first half, taking a 46-26 lead at the break. Western Illinois, conversely, struggled from the floor in the opening 20 minutes going 11-32 from the field and 2-13 from three.
 
The Leatherneck shooting struggles continued in the second half as WIU went 14-32 from the field, 3-12 from three for a total of 25-64 from the field (39.1 percent) and 5-25 from three for the game (20 percent).
 
Vuk Stevanic led the way, scoring a team-high 12 points. Trenton Massner added 11 points, seven rebounds and six assists while Jesiah West scored nine and Quinlan Bennett tallied eight. Both West and Bennett each grabbed five boards. West added five assists. JJ Kalakon came off the bench to add nine points and five boards while KJ Lee scored four points, grabbed six rebounds and had two assists.

Western Illinois took an early 6-5 lead, but a big run by the Golden Eagles fueled by Abmas helped Oral Roberts separate.
 
Western Illinois continues its road swing, heading north to Kansas City, taking on the Roos at 7 p.m. on Saturday. 

Original source can be found here