Eagles drop opener in OT - Tulsa World (11-20-05)

[ORUTerry]

Eagles drop opener in OT

By MATT DOYLE World Sports Writer

11/20/2005

Green, Owens fouled out in the fourth in ORU's 72-67 loss to Utah State

The Oral Roberts University men's basketball team will have a lot to think about Sunday as it travels to Anchorage, Alaska.

Overtime losses tend to leave such lingering thoughts.

The Golden Eagles demonstrated they could overcome a bad first-half performance Saturday night in their season opener against Utah State at the Mabee Center. They, however, could not demonstrate a way to pull out a victory against a quality opponent without two key performers.

The visiting Aggies took advantage of an ORU team playing without starting forwards Caleb Green and Larry Owens for the final minutes of regulation and overtime to pull out a 72-67 overtime decision.

"Disappointing," said ORU senior Mickey Michalec. "If you want to play with a caliber of team like Utah State that has been a NCAA Tournament team, you have to learn to play and compete in games like this. Not just compete, but win.

"I wouldn't say that they wanted it more than we did. But they outplayed us."

ORU played what coach Scott Sutton deemed one of his team's "worst" first halves in sometime and trailed 34-25 at intermission. The Golden Eagles committed 13 turnovers and shot just 29 percent (7-of-24) from the field.

Utah State built the lead to 13 at 44-31 three minutes into the second half thanks to 10 points. But junior guard Ken Tutt ignited a Golden Eagles rally and energized the 6,941 fans at the Mabee Center.

Tutt overcame a 2-of-10 first-half shooting performance to score 12 points over an 11-minute span to give ORU a 57-54 lead with 6:10 left. Tutt had a team-best 23 points.

But the foul trouble that hampered Green and Owens would hurt ORU down the stretch. Green, who went to the bench with his fourth foul at the 10:09 mark, returned with 4:50 left. He fouled out 19 seconds later.

Owens had back-to-back buckets to give ORU a 61-59 lead with just over two minutes left in regulation. But a charging foul, his fifth and final, put him out with 1:05 left.

Carroll forced the game into OT by hitting a leaning 15-foot jumper with 45 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 61.

In overtime, Jaycee Carroll made two free throws with 2:24 left to put the Aggies ahead 67-65. After ORU's Yemi Ogunoye hit an 18-foot jumper with 1:40 left to tie it at 67, Carroll hit a running one-hander off the glass 20 seconds later to give Utah State the lead for good at 69-67. Ogunoye missed two free throws with 45 seconds left, and Tutt missed a 3-pointer with seven seconds remaining.

[ORUTerry]

ORU Notebook: Early wake-up call

By MATT DOYLE World Sports Writer

11/20/2005

There is no rest for the weary after Saturday night's tough 72-67 overtime loss to Utah State. Oral Roberts' basketball team departed early Sunday morning for Anchorage, Alaska, where it will play in the Great Alaska Shootout this week.

Head coach Scott Sutton, assistant coaches Tom Hankins and Conley Phipps, and athletic department and university staff members left at 6 a.m. Assistants Corey Williams and Steve Upshaw and the players took an 8 a.m. flight to Salt Lake City to meet the 6 a.m. traveling party. They will take an early afternoon flight together to Anchorage.

The Golden Eagles open the tournament at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday against Southern California. The game will be televised by ESPN2 (Cox cable 26). It will be ORU's first regular-season appearance on national television since Jan. 17, 1976, when it hosted Penn on NBC.

Mutual benefits: Because of their recent success, both ORU and Utah State found themselves in the same boat in terms of scheduling. There were not many high-caliber opponents who were willing to schedule a road game, or much less play against the Golden Eagles or Aggies.

So, both programs reached an agreement to play a home-and-home series this year. ORU will return the game at Utah State on Dec. 20.

"Nobody wants to play us right now, and they were having the same problem," said Utah State coach Stew Morrill. "I don't know if either one of us wanted to play each other twice. But this is what we needed to do, and I think it will benefit both teams."

[Stl VU Fan]

Mutual benefits: Because of their recent success, both ORU and Utah State found themselves in the same boat in terms of scheduling. There were not many high-caliber opponents who were willing to schedule a road game, or much less play against the Golden Eagles or Aggies.

So, both programs reached an agreement to play a home-and-home series this year. ORU will return the game at Utah State on Dec. 20.

"Nobody wants to play us right now, and they were having the same problem," said Utah State coach Stew Morrill. "I don't know if either one of us wanted to play each other twice. But this is what we needed to do, and I think it will benefit both teams."

ATTENTION MID-MAJOR TEAMS: There needs to be a LOT MORE of this kind of thinking. Kudos to ORU for smart scheduling.

A healthy dose of ignoring the majors is a good prescription for mid-major teams like those in the Mid-Con and other mid to high 20 RPI conferences.

Chicago State is getting killed by Ohio State right now, though I thought they might make more of a game of it. Truthfully, this probably isn't a bad game for CSU to have, it just might have been much better later in the non-conference schedule instead of as the season opener.

Of course, it also means getting conferences like the MVC and the Horizon to also recognize this as a mutually beneficial strategy - if it indeed is. Even so, there's the WAC, Ohio Valley, A-10, etc. It really ought to be kismet for those conferences to schedule the Mid-Con.

Maybe we all need to have a little less envy for the Dukes of the world.

P.S. Noticed the John Havlicek banner hanging from the Ohio State rafters. That's a pretty good alumnus to have. Man, I loved the NBA in those days.

[tbone77]

We had a nice advantage in rebounds. I was surprised to see we had 16 offensive boards (out of total of 34) and we out-bounded USU 34-31. Mick had 5 o-boards out of 10 total. Pretty good work against some good big-men...especially with Caleb on the bench for 19 of the 45 minutes.