ORU is serious contender for first NCAA women's berth since 2013

Oral Roberts Womens College Basketball Early season review/Conference preview Record: 9-3 (entering Saturday's game against Haskell) Best win: 76-63 at Missouri on Dec.

18.

For the first time ever, ORU has defeated two SEC teams in a season after also winning 94-73 on Nov.

21 at Arkansas.

The win at Missouri (10-4) was the 300th in the career of head coach Kelsi Musick.

Makyra Tramble led ORU with 24 points on 9-14 shooting, also contributing seven assists and three rebounds.

Taleyah Jones added 20 points.

ORU also has a pair of wins over AAC teams -- Tulsa and Wichita State.

Worst loss: 94-54 at Oklahoma on Dec.

15.

The best win came only three days after losing by 40 against the 10th-ranked Sooners, who led 49-19 at halftime.

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Give the edge to Udoumoh, who is the Summit's top rebounder at 8.9 and shoots at 56% from the field.

Another strong choice would be Jones, who was named on Monday as ORU's third Summit League player of the week this season, joining Udoumoh and Oglesby, as she averaged 18 points in the wins over Missouri and Wichita State.

An argument also can be made that the top player has been Oglesby, who comes off the bench but delivers a lot in 25 minutes per game.

She is fourth in the Summit League scoring race and leads shooters at 58% from the field.

Three storylines 1: Is ORU a serious contender for the Summit League title and NCAA postseason berth? Everything indicates that this is ORU's best team in more than a decade.

In the age of the transfer portal, it is more important than ever for a team to maintain its core of key players and ORU has done that from last season's WNIT qualifier.

ORU has not reached the NCAA Tournament since 2013.

It is likely that ORU will need to win the Summit tournament to get an NCAA bid, but a great league season could vault it into contention for an at-large berth if needed.

ORU is 74th in the NET rankings.

Summit favorite South Dakota State is at 44.

2: What are the keys for ORU to continue its success? ORU's experience and well-balanced attack are a challenge for opponents.

The Golden Eagles rank first in the Summit League in scoring (80.0), assists per game (16.0), rebounds per game (40.6), steals (9.7) and turnover margin (2.8).

The only area of concern for ORU is at the free-throw line -- the Golden Eagles are only converting 67.6 of their attempts -- eighth in the Summit.

3: Will Tyla Heard start to make more of an impact? Heard, a freshman from Sapulpa and 2024 All-World girls player of the year, is averaging 17.3 minutes -- that ranks among the team's top seven.

She is a better shooter than she has shown -- 28% from the field and only 4-of-21 on 3s.

Look for those percentages to improve and her impact to increase.

A year ago: ORU was 8-4 at this point last season en route to a 21-11 record and WNIT berth.

Conference outlook: South Dakota State has won four consecutive titles and was the preseason favorite after going to the NCAA Tournament last year as a 12-seed.

The Jackrabbits have again looked the part so far this season with a 10-3 record -- the only losses coming against top-20 teams.

ORU was picked for second in the preseason -- its highest projection since rejoining the league in 2014.

Those two teams appear to be clearly above the remaining teams, with most of them either just below or just above .500 so far this season except for Kansas City at 3-11.

Marquee games ahead: Thursday -- Summit play starts with a bang as ORU hosts South Dakota State, which has preseason player of the year Brooklyn Meyer.

Feb.

1 -- ORU hosts Denver on the Golden Eagles' Hall of Fame Day in the opener of a women's and men's doubleheader.

Feb.

8 -- ORU visits South Dakota State in a game that will be shown on the CBS Sports Network.

Feb.

22 -- ORU's Senior Night game is against North Dakota State, picked No.

3 in the preseason.

Barry Lewis, Tulsa World.

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