Grading the Golden Eagles - Rogers State edition
ORU beat Rogers State 87-76 on Monday and managed to record the 900th victory in ORU history. Here’s how the Golden Eagles graded out…
Killer instinct: D
Oral Roberts’ Albert Owens knocked down his first 3-pointer of the year, after making only one all of last season, and the Golden Eagles led Rogers State 21-11 with 10:47 left in the opening half. This is where most teams would bury a Division II opponent and crush the opposing team’s spirit. But then Rogers State hung around for the remainder of the first half, and the Hillcats were within 3 (42-39) at halftime. In the second half, ORU never maintained a comfortable lead until Jalen Bradley made a layup to make it 78-69 with 4:33 left. It shouldn’t have taken ORU 35 minutes-ish to dispatch of Rogers State.
“We had a chance early in the game to break the game open, and then we missed some easy opportunities,” ORU coach Scott Sutton said. “That’s something we’re going to have to learn from. If that’s a conference team or another Division I team, you may not be able to recover and they could come back to beat you.”
Bench production: C-
Chris Miller scored eight points in eight minutes, but he also racked up five fouls and was disqualified in that short amount of time. As one of the few weapons on the low block, Miller has to find a way to play around foul trouble. Darian Harris played the most minutes off the bench, but those 16 minutes weren’t terribly memorable outside of a 3-pointer he made in the first half. Jontray Harris had his moments of potential, and the bench only accounted for three turnovers, but there wasn’t much eye-popping coming from the reserves.
Ball protection: D-
Too much sloppiness. Four turnovers apiece from Emmanuel Nzekwesi and Albert Owens. Then Aaron Anderson was charitable three times. Way too much turnovers against an inferior opponent.
“We talked before the game about pushing the ball and running our transition offense,” Sutton said. “We didn’t want to have to run a lot of sets, because we didn’t want our upcoming opponents to scout us. We started playing too fast and made some careless passes.”
Starting 5: B-
Nzekwesi deferred to Owens and Bradley —who both tied career highs with 21 points each — when it came to scoring, but the freshman forward snatched an impressive 17 rebounds. And he made those rebounds look mostly effortless. Then Anderson and Aaron Young swiped four steals each, so being opportunistic when it came to takeaways was good. And outside of Nzekwesi’s 3 of 13 shooting performance, the rest of the starters made 21 of 43 field goals.
Rebounding: B+
Among Nzekwesi, Owens and Miller, the Golden Eagles should be able to rebound the basketball this season. Piling up 16 offensive rebounds should provide plenty of putback chances, too. ORU had 15 of the second-chance variety, and that’s a plus.
Crowd: D
The new student section — the Bird Cage, established 2016 — was a nice change of pace, and the students were heavily invested throughout most of the game. But that’s usually the norm for ORU, when the students show up to the first game of the season, and they slowly dwindle as the season progresses. As for the rest of the 2,653 in attendance, there needs to be more than that. I know Rogers State doesn’t excite the masses, but ORU should at least be above the 3,000 line — that’s not too much to ask. The bar should be set for 4,500 for non-conference games against Tulsa, Arkansas-Little Rock and Richmond later in the season, and maybe that’ll entice more people to show up in January during conference play.
Overall performance: C-
Rebounding was passable, shooting was OK and the end result was a win. But when a Division II team comes strolling into the Mabee Center, the outcome should be decided in the first 20 minutes. ORU needed every bit of 35 minutes to hammer a nail in Rogers State’s coffin. That won’t get it done moving forward.
Up next: ORU takes on Mississippi at 2 p.m. on Friday in the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands.
