Feb. 6, 2010

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ROCHESTER, Mich. - Senior Melissa Jeltema recorded her second straight double-double and her sixth of the season with 22 points and 10 rebounds and junior Anna Patritto scored a season-best 15 points off the bench, but it wasn't enough to overcome a late ORU scoring surge as the Oakland University women's basketball team (11-12, 8-4 Summit League) fell to Oral Roberts (16-7, 10-2 Summit League) 91-87 Saturday afternoon at the O'Rena.

"That was a frustrating game, having a lead like that then giving it up," said head coach Beckie Francis. "I thought we showed some improvement from the first time we played them and we are just excited to get back on the court and play our next game."

After the game see-sawed between the teams in the opening minutes, the Golden Grizzlies fired off on a 10-2 tear, capped off by Patritto's first 3-pointer of the season, to give them a 28-17 lead with just over 11 minutes to play in the half.

From there, the Black and Gold would beef up their lead to as many as 17 points, led by a 11-point scoring effort by Patritto, and went into the locker room up nine, 53-44, matching Oakland's highest first half point total this season.

Oakland continued to maintain a double-digit lead through the first 12 minutes of the second half, but the Golden Eagles began to claw their way back, taking advantage of 45 percent shooting from the floor to cut the lead to just one point, 80-79, with just five minutes to go in the contest.

A pair of free throws by Janae Voelker knotted the game up at 81-81 with 3:21 on the clock and ORU took their first lead of the game since the 17:20 mark of the first half with 2:22 to go. Jeltema nailed a baseline jumper at 1:37 to put Oakland up one, 85-84, but OU couldn't convert on free throws down then the stretch, allowing ORU to pull ahead by four in the final seconds for the 91-87 victory.

Besides Jeltema and Patritto's double-digit nights, senior Hanna Reising scored 17 points and sophomore Sharise Calhoun put up nine points and six rebounds. Oral Roberts was led by Kevi Luper's 31 points and four additional Golden Eagles hit double-digits.

Oakland held the edge in rebounding, 38-36, and both teams nearly broke even on turnovers, with ORU committing one less with 19 compared to Oakland's 20. Oral Roberts shot 46 percent from the floor, and while OU shot 50 percent for the game, they could only convert 13-22 of their free throws.

The Golden Grizzlies will next face off against Centenary on Monday, Feb. 8 for a 6:30 p.m. tip at the O`Rena. The game can be followed via All Access or Gametracker at www.ougrizzlies.com.

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