Eagles snare No. 1 - TW (2-26-06)

[ORUTerry]

Eagles snare No. 1

By MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer

2/26/2006

ORU gets share of title, top seed in tourney with win, IUPUI loss

The Oral Roberts basketball team did more than send off its seniors with an 87-78 win over Valparaiso at the Mabee Center to end the regular season Saturday.

The Golden Eagles also won a share of the Mid-Continent Conference title for the second straight year when Indiana-Purdue lost at Southern Utah. Both teams finished 13-3 in league play, but the tiebreaker formula gave ORU the top seed in the Mid-Con tournament, which starts next weekend at Union High School.

The Eagles, 18-11 overall, will play eighth-seeded Western Illinois at 6 p.m. Saturday.

Juniors Caleb Green and Ken Tutt combined to score 45 points and sophomore forward Yemi Ogunoye had the dunk of the year as the Eagles ran their record against Valpo in Tulsa to 10-0.

The seniors did their share. Larry Owens scored 16 points, hitting 12-of-16 foul shots. Chris Riouse made three treys and Mickey Michalec hounded high-scoring Valparaiso forward Dan Oppland into an 8-of-21 shooting night.

Oppland scored 25, but the 6- foot-10 Michalec made him work for everything. Michalec had his arms waving in Oppland's face on almost every shot and blocked two of them.

Senior guard Jonathan Bluitt made two treys and had three assists to move into third place on the school's all-time assist chart with 491. Green posted his 13th double-double of the season with 27 points and 15 rebounds and broke his one-year school record by making his 214th foul shot of the year. He was 9-of-16 from the foul line.

Tutt came off the bench to score 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting with two 3-pointers -- his best outing since missing 10 games with a broken foot.

With 11:45 left, the 6-foot-9 Ogunoye speared a miss by Michalec with his right hand, and in one monstrous motion, brought it from behind his ear in a semicircular arc to hammer it into the basket for his only points of the night. He also had four rebounds and one steal.

"Yemi's dunk was the best of the year for me," Tutt said. "I don't know how he even caught it, but after he put it in, I just jumped off the bench."

Said Green: "I didn't even care about the next play. We've been wanting Yemi to be that kind of aggressive player all year. To see him play like that was wonderful."

Seniors Ron Howard and Ali Berdiel had 16 each for Valpo.

ORU had a shaky start. Howard opened the game with a rare four-point play when he was fouled by Owens while sinking a 3-pointer. The Crusaders (16-11, 8- led by as many as seven in the first half, but ORU took the lead for good with a 7-1 run before halftime and it was 38-35.

"It's always important to send your seniors out with a win," said head coach Scott Sutton. "I don't think we played a great game. Valpo came out and made some shots and played aggressive, but we were able to get the lead at halftime and extend it in the second half, and I thought that was key."

Bluitt opened the second half with a 3-pointer and hit another one six minutes later, helping the Eagles build their lead to 50-40. Owens' driving basket from the baseline, which started with a 360-degree spin, pushed the lead to 69-56 with 6:43 left.

Valpo scored the next seven points and it was 69-63 with 5:02 left on the first of Seth Colclasure's three treys, but Owens went to work at the foul line.

[ORUTerry]

Here are some observations about last night's game:

1. It's good to have Ken Tutt back; he made several of his patented pull-up jumpers and looked confident on the offensive side of the court. When he and Riouse (and Ehambe for a few minutes) came off the bench, it allowed us to stretch the Valpo zone because they had to guard all of them

2. The team showed its maturity and experience by working methodically and steadily to take the lead in the first half and keep it in the second. Valpo calculated that they could foul Owens, but he made his free throws.

3. Did the refs get paid by how many fouls they called? What a joke. It would also help if they were consistent. On a related matter, what is it with Valpo and 'flopping'? Several times their players fell to the floor with no contact; sometimes it induced the refs to call a foul and other times it did not. This must be something Homer teaches because they have done it for years.

4. Wish Fowlkes and Meloy could have gotten to play more, given that it was their last game at the Mabee Center.

5. Anyone notice we switched to a zone defense in the latter part of the second half? We went in and out of it - and then stayed in it at the end of the game. Nice bit of coaching by Sutton, except we should have switched back to a man defense to better defend Colclasure at the end. I expect that we will see some more zone against opponents if the situation warrants. The best part is that we actually looked good playing the zone; it was not passive and was extended out to the perimeter.

6. Green is a monster and could not be stopped when he got the ball down low. His ability to grab rebounds is incredible... position, quickness and strength.

7. Yemi's slam dunk off Mickey's missed jump shot really energized the crowd and team. Big play in the game.

8. Bluitt left the game limping on his ankle, but appeared to be somewhat okay. He has a week to get better. Vealy played a few minutes in the first half, but sat out the second half with an ice-bag around his ankle. Hope he recuperates in time to play next Saturday.

9. Sutton was very active on the sideline and in the refs' faces all night. These games against Valpo bring out the best in him.

10. Biggest stat of the game.... only 9 turnovers.

[JoeyO]

Am I the only one who forgot how good Ken really is? I have been worried about getting him back in the rotation with how well the other guys have played but my fears were calmed last night. I forgot how great of a player he is.

[ORU Eli]

NINE TURNOVERS??? AS IN SINGLE DIGITS??

Wow guys...I'm one proud dude. We've been needing to eliminate mistakes all year...awesome.

[maniac prez]

Ken looked stellar last night! I completely forgot how good he was, because even when he was playing before the injury, he wasn't playing well (I wonder if the stress fracture had already been bugging him...) Ken seemed a little slow on the defensive end, which showed with his 5 fouls, but it's great to have him out there, he looked good!

[rlh]

Terry,

While I agree with most of your posts and assessments of games, and totally agree the referees were terrible both ways last night I take issue with this statement:

3. Did the refs get paid by how many fouls they called? What a joke. It would also help if they were consistent. On a related matter, what is it with Valpo and 'flopping'? Several times their players fell to the floor with no contact; sometimes it induced the refs to call a foul and other times it did not. This must be something Homer teaches because they have done it for years.

The biggest "flop" of the night was by one Mr. Johnathan Bluitt at the top of the key. Even you SID agreed that it was a phantom call. Check your own team before criticizing others...

[MrsSmith]

We thought JB got knocked over by one of his teammates. It was a bad call - one of many!!

[Guest EagleBackr]

The biggest "flop" of the night was by one Mr. Johnathan Bluitt at the top of the key. Even you SID agreed that it was a phantom call. Check your own team before criticizing others...

...you must have been downing your fourth hot dog on that play, RLH, because we ALL saw it, too, and JB got PLOWED over - no question. There were bad calls on both sides, but that was NOT one of them. The worst call of the night was Caleb's fourth, when he stepped on the defenders foot on the baseline, the defender fell on his butt, and then the ref AT HALF COURT calls an elbow on Caleb. Talk about your phantom fouls...

Other observations (from someone who was actually WATCHING the game):

1. Oppland's lack of foot speed was painfully obvious with MICKEY defending him and actually doing a great job. It allowed Caleb to sag from Kone/Mbaye and help out on defense. I actually thought Mickey did a better job on Oppland then Yemi did in the second half - Mickey stood his ground and forced Oppland into several bad shots - Yemi left his feet and tried to block everything, which played to Valpo's advantage as they tried to get back into the game from the free throw line late.

2. Speaking of Oppland, I hope last night will put to rest any further talk of Oppland being POY over Caleb - the gulf between the two seems even greater this year than last. Caleb imposed his will whenever we needed it; Oppland seemed to be forcing almost EVERYTHING, even when the shot went in. And watching him shot-put those free throws up there was pretty entertaining - easy to see how he airballed one in a game a couple of weeks back. And the difference in defense and rebounding between the two is not even worth discussing. Caleb may have some flaws, but he's a MUCH more complete basketball player than Oppland - and he made Kone look SILLY on several occasions last night...

3. The defense on the perimeter last night was INCREDIBLE - we were jumping every screen in that little weave play they were trying to run, which is encouraging since IUPUI runs that offense almost exclusively.

4. Ken Tutt was PHENOMENAL! Forget whether he's back from the injury - that was the best game he has played ALL SEASON!! The drives, the quick pull-ups, the feathery touch, even his ball-handling - it was all FANTASTIC!! He has definitely earned the right to be the sixth man for the Mid-Con tournament, and maybe you even start him instead of Mickey against a smaller club, and put Yemi on a wing or post player.

5. Larry Owens has been in a bit of a mini-slump the last couple of games, at least for him. He looked sluggish and tentative in the first half last night. But when Caleb and Ken got in foul trouble in the second half, he went down in the post and MANNED UP - made several great offensive and defensive plays when we needed them, and was GREAT from the free throw line down the stretch. I actually feel more confortable late in the game having Larry (or Ken, for that matter) bringing the ball up, drawing the foul, and going to the line, than I am with JB.

[praetorfenix86]

You're right about Larry, where was he the first 32 minutes of the game, but wow did he step up when we needed him. He just flipped a switch and played awesome.

Ken Tutt, Ken Tutt, Ken Tutt. Have I mentioned that I love him. Took him fourth in the fantasy draft. Hope he makes me look smart. I love Ken Tutt.

Hope Ken Tutt doesn't read the forum or it'll just be another restraining order on me.

[Stl VU Fan]

The worst call of the night was the 5th foul on Kone, who did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING but stand there with his hands up.

[orumom]

Having watched the game 4 times now, the worst call of the night was when Caleb took the elbow to his head. It obviously should have been an intentional foul.

Kone made so many fouls that didn't get called that I don't think I would complain about the fouls that did get called.

I have to agree that JB might have flopped when the one foul was called, but again, how many times did he get man handled without a call?

Most certainly I will agree that Oppland is no POY & I won't miss the attitudes of Oppland and Howard next year.

I kept waiting for Homer to run out on the floor, but he seemed to not go more than 3 feet onto the court from the side line - good for him, bad for anyone else.

[ORU Eli]

EB said

...you must have been downing your fourth hot dog on that play, RLH

I think I just woke up my neighbors with the sudden outburst of laughter that this quote induced. Or perhaps it's not really that funny and I just need to go to bed...either way EB made me giggle again. And as I always say, I'm not one for giggling.

[Stl VU Fan]

Kone made so many fouls that didn't get called that I don't think I would complain about the fouls that did get called.

I'm not complaining about him fouling out. I'm simply saying the 5th foul that was called on him was absolutely atrocious.

I won't miss the attitudes of Oppland and Howard next year.

Huh? Can you elaborate on this, please?

[Stl VU Fan]

The worst call of the night was Caleb's fourth, when he stepped on the defenders foot on the baseline, the defender fell on his butt, and then the ref AT HALF COURT calls an elbow on Caleb. Talk about your phantom fouls...

Point well taken about that ref being out of place for making the call, but from your description, it sounds like there WAS a foul there. It doesn't exactly sound like a phantom call.

And there were plenty of fouls in the 2nd half that should have been no calls. Like when Ron Howard just stood there, Bluitt got himself tangled up with Howard, and they called the foul on Howard. That was pathetic. It should have been a no-call. THAT was a phantom call.

[Guest Blevins]

Are you forgetting the offensive foul called on Chris Riouse late in the second half? TV replays showed his elbow missed Ali Berdiel by at least a foot... not to mention how late the call was.

[Dr. Cornelius]

The sick thing is that flopping like that has to be taught.

[ORUHomer]

Blevins is right. By far the "most entertaining" phantom call of the night was by seasoned actor, oops, I mean player, Ali Berdiel. I was laughing so hard at his flop that the official's call was an afterthought. I especially liked how Berdiel put his hand to his nose/face as if he actually got whacked! Give him credit though, 'cause he's had plenty of time at Valpo to master his acting abilities...

(also give him credit for hitting some clutch three's in the first half)

[Weatherdemon]

The sick thing is that flopping like that has to be taught.

Hawaii used to be masters at the flop.

Riley Wallace teaches that move quite well.

It worked well for them on the island but not so much on the mainland.