ORU focusing on the Grizzlies

[tmh8286]

ORU focusing on the Grizzlies

By MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer

2/9/2006

Oakland (Mich.) fouled up Oral Roberts University's 2005 basketball season, and the Golden Grizzlies could do it again Thursday night.

The Golden Eagles will try to make sure they don't put the cart before the horse when they visit the Grizzlies for a key Mid-Continent Conference game.

Saturday's potential first-place showdown at Indiana-Purdue "won't mean as much if we don't take care of business Thursday night," said ORU coach Scott Sutton.

Said sophomore guard Yemi Ogunoye, "We're not even thinking about Saturday's game, we're thinking about Oakland. We have to win that one first."

The Eagles trail IUPUI by one game and would fall two off the pace if they lose and the Jaguars win Thursday's home game with Valparaiso. If both teams lose, the Eagles would have missed a chance to go into Saturday's game tied for first.

"You could really help or hurt yourself with these two games, but the most important thing is that we get ready for Oakland," Sutton said. "We haven't mentioned IUPUI, and I think our players recognize that Oakland is talented."

The Grizzlies aren't the same team that upset ORU in the final of last year's Mid-Con Tournament. They may be better.

The leadership of senior stars

Rawle Marshall and Cortney Scott has been replaced by three transfers from other Division I programs. Calvin Wooten (Rutgers) leads the Mid-Con in scoring (20.8 points per game) and Vova Severovas (Wright State) and Rick Billings (Ohio State) also average in double figures.

Wooten made 6-of-11 treys and scored 26 points in ORU's 74-63 win over the Grizzlies last month in Tulsa. The 6-foot-9 Ogunoye will draw the task of slowing Wooten down, with occasional help from 6-7 Larry Owens.

"He's a real good player, explosive and quick, and he likes to shoot it from deep," Ogunoye said. "It's a tough assignment, but I like guarding the other team's best player."

The Eagles must also slow down 6-7, 275-pound Shawn Hopes, who scored a career-high 22 points on 9-of-10 shooting in Tulsa.

"We didn't do a very good job of keeping (Hopes) off the boards in the second half, but some of the shots he took from 12 to 15 feet were something we hadn't seem him do a whole lot of in the past," Sutton said. "Hopefully we can do a better job."

ORU is riding a season-best four-game winning streak. The Eagles have held four straight foes under 60 points. They outrebounded those teams by 17 per game while allowing them to shoot a combined 34.2 percent. ORU leads the league in both categories.

Eagle reserves have accounted for 123 points in the past four games and are averaging 20 per game since the start of conference play.

"They've given us a boost," Sutton said. "(Andrew Meloy) is starting to play like we saw him play down the stretch last year and (Chris Riouse and Moses Ehambe) are playing with a great deal of confidence."

[tmh8286]

"We didn't do a very good job of keeping (Hopes) off the boards in the second half, but some of the shots he took from 12 to 15 feet were something we hadn't seem him do a whole lot of in the past," Sutton said. "Hopefully we can do a better job."

What Scott didn't say was that Hopes scored 22 against ORU, is averaging 9.6 ppg on the season, and that the most points he's scored in a game this season other than ORU is 16.

Hopefully he plays more average tonight.

Cal Wooten also scored above his average against ORU, although he's scored that much and more in other games.

[richieoru]

Nice stats tmh if we were on Around the Horn I would give you some big points.