The good: Denell Henderson finally made an appearance this season. After logging seven points in his first three games of the year, the 6-foot-7, 235-pound bruiser in the middle put up 15 points along with 10 rebounds in the Golden Eagles' 76-52 blowout loss to Louisiana-Lafayette. Outside of that, it was a dismal night at the office for ORU.
The bad: Plenty of nuggets apply here. Just to name a few:
- ORU managed a murky 36.4 percent (8 of 22) from the field in the first half. Somehow, it got worse in the second half with only seven field goals made out of 34 attempts. The Golden Eagles finished with a demoralizing 26.8 percentage (15 of 56) from the floor. Not many teams will win with that kind of inferior shooting performance.
- To continue on the shooting bandwagon, ORU made only three 3-pointers while hoisting up 18 attempts. Then on 29 free-throw attempts, the Golden Eagles converted only 19.
Just an all-around poor shooting night in Las Vegas.
- ORU turned the ball over 17 times against the Rajin' Cajuns. That's after handing the ball over 20 times at Oregon State. The Golden Eagles were a model of ball handling with a combined 19 turnovers in a win over Tulsa a narrow defeat a Missouri. All of a sudden, ORU has become charitable with the basketball.
- ULL outscored ORU 36-22 in the paint; 19-10 in points off of turnovers; 8-0 in fast-break points; 55 - FIFTY-FIVE!! - to 15 in bench points.
- Bobby Word, Jabbar Singleton, Dederick Lee and Darian Harris combined for 55 minutes on the floor against ULL. The quartet also failed to outscore any combination of game officials, event workers or media members. Of the 12 ORU players that stepped on the court, only six managed to record a single point.
There are plenty more "bad" items that could be listed here. But you get the point.
The reality: ORU is officially reeling. The loss at Missouri looked like a spirited effort. The setback at Oregon State just looked like an off night. But after the performance against the Rajin' Cajuns, it appears as though ORU is just not a very good shooting team - at the moment.
The coaches seem to think otherwise, so that'll make things interesting moving forward.
Also, ORU's Obi Emegano and Korey Billbury need someone to step up as a third scorer. Word did it in the season opener, and Henderson showed some promise against Louisiana-Lafayette. But guys like Brandon Conley, Jabbar Singleton, Dederick Lee and Darian Harris need to find some sort of consistency so that the Golden Eagles have more than just two scorers.
Botton line: ORU turned in a clunker on Tuesday night. Now the Golden Eagles face a quick turnaround and face Wisconsin-Milwaukee at 3 p.m. central time today.
Also, if ORU could manage to pull out wins over Milwaukee and Weber State on Saturday, the road trip doesn't look half as bad. Plus the Golden Eagles would return home with a .500 record.
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