Reality intrudes on Chicago State -- Chicago Tribune

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Reality intrudes on Chicago State

By Matt Doyle

Special to the Tribune

Published March 8, 2006

TULSA -- Oral Roberts made sure it did not fall victim to Cinderella for the second consecutive year at the Mid-Continent Conference basketball tournament.

Midnight finally struck Chicago State early in the second half of Tuesday night's conference final as the top-seeded Golden Eagles blitzed the sixth-seeded Cougars with a 26-4 run for an 85-72 victory at the John Q. Hammons Arena.

One year after falling 61-60 in the title game to an 11-18 Oakland team, Oral Roberts (21-11) used the past heartbreak as motivation to pull away from the underdog Cougars (11-19) in the second half.

The experience factor showed up in decisive fashion.

Oral Roberts junior Ken Tutt broke a 44-44 tie at the 15-minute-29-second mark with one of his four three-pointers to give the Golden Eagles the lead for good. The shot by Tutt, who finished with a game-high 25 points to earn tournament MVP honors, triggered an 18-0 spurt.

The run was punctuated by seven points from league player-of-the-year Caleb Green and six from Larry Owens.

Green had 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Owens added 24 points.

"I'm a realist, they have the better team. They have better players than I have," Chicago State coach Kevin Jones said. "Those guys can play at a lot of big schools. I have guys who weren't offered scholarships anywhere."

Still, Chicago State provided a stiff test for 25 minutes.

The diminutive guard combination of 5-foot-6-inch David Holston and 5-9 Royce Parran each had eight first-half points, and Kevin Jones Jr. added seven as Chicago State took a 34-33 halftime lead.

The Cougars shot 52 percent in the first half and committed just four turnovers.

Oral Roberts imposed its will on the Cougars after intermission.

The Golden Eagles shot 31 of their 35 free throws in the second half and made 23 of them. They also shot a sizzling 67 percent from the field and held Parran scoreless after halftime.

The junior guard from Lincoln Park had scored 44 points in Chicago State's tournament victories over Missouri-Kansas City and IUPUI.

Holston finished with 21 points to lead Chicago State.

"We all played hard to get to this point," said Parran, who was selected for the all-tournament team. "I know the guys we have gave everything they had tonight, so I can't fault them for running out of gas [in the second half]."