March gladness - Tulsa World (3-7-2007)

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March gladness

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by MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer

3/7/2007

ORU earns berth into NCAAs after winning Mid-Con

Eagles gain back-to-back NCAA berths for first time

Green scores 28, becomes league?s all-time leading scorer

Nobody struggled more than Adam Liberty to find his way with the Oral Roberts basketball team.

Liberty made the biggest foul shots of the Golden Eagles' season Tuesday night.

The junior guard's free throws with 11.5 seconds left capped a furious second half as ORU rallied from an 11-point deficit to nip Oakland (Mich.) 71-67 in the final of the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament.

"I was thinking, just hit them, like (head coach Scott Sutton) told me to do," said Liberty, who transferred from Wichita State and sat out last year when ORU won the Mid-Con title for the first time.

"It didn't even enter my mind I was going to miss," he said.

Ken Tutt's 10-foot bank shot with 31.8 seconds left broke the game's final tie, but the game wasn't over yet.

Oakland's Erik Kangas fired a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 17 seconds left -- he made six first-half 3-pointers -- and Sutton flashed back to two years ago when the Grizzlies beat the Eagles in the final on a last-second 3-pointer.

"I thought Kangas' shot was in. I was shocked that it didn't go in. We were fortunate it didn't, and we were able to get a rebound. I had a lot of flashbacks," Sutton said.

Kangas' long shot lipped out and Tutt was there to rebound. The ball got slapped out of Tutt's hands, but ORU retained possession. On the inbounds pass, Tutt was double-teamed in the corner and got the ball to Liberty, a 71-percent foul shooter.

"If it wasn't (senior forward Caleb Green) or Ken, Adam's the next guy I would want up there," Sutton said. "He's not afraid in that situation."

Liberty, who has his nickname "Silk" shaved into the back of his head, rattled in the first foul shot and swished the second. And then, it didn't matter what Oakland did.

Kangas missed a final 3-pointer -- he was 6-of-13 in the game -- and senior forward Vova Severovas missed a tip at the buzzer, and hundreds of fans, mostly from ORU's Mabee Maniacs student section, stormed the court to celebrate.

The top-seeded Eagles improved to 23-10 and nailed down a second straight NCAA berth while Oakland, which set a school Division I record for wins, fell to 19-14.

Green scored 28 points to break the Mid-Con career scoring record and Tutt scored 20 to reach a career 2,000. He and Green became only the seventh Division I teammates to reach 2,000 in the same year.

Green now has 2,490 points -- two more than Missouri-Kansas City's Michael Watson's 2,488 (2000-04).

Oakland rode Kangas' 20 first-half points to a 45-34 halftime lead, but the Eagles limited the Grizzlies to 22.2-percent shooting in the second half and 22 points.

ORU junior Shawn King blocked five in the game, including three in a 17-5 flurry to start the second half that erased Oakland's lead.

ORU buckled down on Kangas after the half and Tutt got the Eagles rolling with a 3-pointer and a jumper on the Eagles' first two possessions.

Green's steal led to Shawn King's breakaway dunk and Green assisted Yemi Ogunoye and Liberty for baskets.

"I thought Ken's baskets and Shawn's blocks got the crowd in the game, and then it seemed like we were right back in the game," Sutton said.

Green tied the Mid-Con scoring record with a basket at 6:13 and broke it with another at 5:20, sending ORU to a 60-50 lead.

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Mike Brown 581-8390

mike.brown@tulsaworld.com