ORU hoops — Tabor leftovers, South Dakota lookahead, etc.

If you're into slaughters of NAIA basketball teams, then here's a recap of Oral Roberts' dismantling of Tabor on Tuesday night: http://bit.ly/164fV76. For a game that featured 94 points on the Golden Eagles' end, nothing spectacular really stood out. But, ORU coach Scott Sutton said it was mission accomplished and time to move on.

And that's what we'll do.

Time to resume Summit League shenanigans on Saturday in Vermillion, South Dakota. And I'm sure there are plenty of shenanigans along the South Dakota-Nebraska border —  where the Coyotes reside.

The Golden Eagles dispatched of Haskell in much the same manner in December and parlayed that into a road win at Detroit to round out the December schedule. ORU could benefit from the same scenario playing out this weekend.

ORU needs to compile some road victories to make up for the home blunder against South Dakota State.

If ORU is to prevail in any of its next three games — at South Dakota, at IUPUI and at IPFW — it'll have to improve immensely at the free throw line. A once solid free-throw shooting team, ORU is now struggling from that 15-foot charity line.

The Golden Eagles in their last three games have gone 10 of 17, 10 of 21 and 13 of 24 from the foul line. None of those percentages are over 58 percent.

That's troubling.

"I don't know," Sutton said when asked to pinpoint the recent troubles at the line. "Obi Emegano is one of the best 15-foot shooters I've ever been around, and he's a guy that could easily shoot 90 percent. He's shooting below 80."

ORU is still seventh in the country at free throws made (368), but the Golden Eagles have slipped in the free-throw percentage category, dropping to 83rd with a 71.7 percentage.

"We just have to keep putting them in positions in practice and put a little bit of pressure on them, where they have to make a certain percentage of free throws," Sutton said. "If they don't, they run. That's the only thing we can keep doing."

Emegano is 12th in the country in free throws made (119). Imagine where he'd be if he hadn't missed a portion of his 32 missed freebies this year.

In South Dakota, ORU will find a team that's probably pretty peeved. The Coyotes lost at home to an improving IPFW team, but they'll still feel like they should have won.

So, really, IPFW probably didn't do the Golden Eagles any favors.

Either way, ORU has to find a way to win its next three road games — or least snag two of the three.

"We can't get back the ones we've lost," Sutton said. "It's put us behind a little bit, but all you can do is worry about the next one."

Two of the best rebounding guards will be on display with ORU and South Dakota clash. South Dakota's Tyler Larson grabs a league-leading eight a game, while Billbury is hauling in seven.

Neither is taller than 76 inches.

ORU's time on the road would also be a great time for one of the Golden Eagles' role players — Jabbar Singleton, Bobby Word, Adrion Webber, Aaron Young, Darian Harris, Brandon Conley — to step up. Although, we've been saying that all season long.

Perhaps Dederick Lee becomes more involved in ORU's plans after scoring nine points with six assists against Tabor.

Harris recently found a new surge of confidence, so maybe Lee's time is rapidly approaching.

Summit League sidenote: If you're into ugly games, the IUPUI-Western Illinois game tonight in Macomb may be right up your alley. The offense for both teams could get highly offensive — and not in a good way. First one to 60 probably wins.

ORU signee update...

- Chris Crawford, Victory Christian

The Conqueror guard scored 14 points in VC's 82-43 pummeling of Summit Christian on Tuesday. Crawford will be on display at the BOK Center on Saturday, when Victory Christian takes on Edison at 10:30.

- Chris Miller, Booker T. Washington

The 6-foot-7 Hornet forward scored 11 points while helping Booker T. Washington to the Jenks/Union Invitational crown last weekend. Then he turns around and has 31 points on Tuesday, but BTW loses to McLain. Strange. The Hornets will play at the BOK Center Saturday at 4:30 p.m. against Memorial.

- Javan White, Ames (Iowa)

The Little Cyclones have won three in a row, thanks in large part to the 6-foot-8 Golden Eagle signee. He had 14 points and 10 rebounds in a blowout of Marshalltown, and he followed that up with an 11-point, nine-rebound effort in a win over Prairie, Cedar Rapids. Then on Tuesday night, White had a Jason Kidd-like performance (nine points, eight rebounds, seven blocks) as Ames beat Valley, West Des Moines.

Ames now finishes out the regular season with five of six games at home, including tonight against Fort Dodge.

ORU at Denver — the good, the bad and the reality

Sports are great — plain and simple. The euphoric rush of victories can easily be canceled out by devastating defeats. And sometimes devastating isn't the right word to use for losses. There are some that are soul crushers.

That's what Oral Roberts' 73-66 loss at Denver felt like for the Golden Eagles on Wednesday. To let a team erase a 12-point deficit and close the game on a 20-1 run is a gut punch and a kick to the groin, times ten.

I'm sure no ORU players or coaches were violently ill in the visiting locker room at Magness Arena, but I'm sure the notion of vomiting popped up in someone's mind.

Now the hard part for ORU: erasing the Denver loss from its memory bank. That process starts today when the Golden Eagles arrive back in Tulsa and prepare for South Dakota on Saturday. ORU can let the Denver disappointment linger and continue to be soul crusher, or the Golden Eagles can take their anger out on the hottest team in the Summit League.

The choice is all ORU's at this point.

The good: Well, first and foremost, Darian Harris. Goodness gracious, the redshirt freshman used his one made 3-pointer against IPFW to turn his whole season around. The first two and a half months had been a mental nightmare for the Creighton transfer, but his confidence is soaring now.

At certain moments against Denver, he was a one-man wrecking crew. He finished with career-high totals in points (nine) and rebounds (seven). He was 3 of 5 from the field — with all of those shots occurring behind the 3-point arc.

It wasn't inconceivable to think that Harris' minutes could be cut out entirely once the Golden Eagles started Summit League play. Against Denver he played 27 minutes.

Expect much of the same against South Dakota State.

- Denell Henderson made it a banner night for those who had the initials "DH" in Wednesday night's game. The 6-foot-7 senior notched a career high 18 points on a 6-of-9 shooting effort. He was also 6 of 7 from the free throw line.

Problem was that 14 of Henderson's point total came before halftime. Four points were canceled out by three personal fouls and three turnovers in the second half.

- ORU made 61 percent of its field goals, burying 25 of 41 attempts. A 6-of-14 showing on 3s was also a bright spot for the Golden Eagles.

But if you're going to shoot that well, you might as well win.

The bad: Can't start anywhere else other than the collapse. That's what ORU coach Scott Sutton termed it, and he's spot on.

"It was a total collapse on our part, on both ends of the court," he said.

He's right. When Obi Emegano drained a jumper with 6:59 left, ORU's lead increased to 65-53. From there, everything went horrifyingly wrong for the Golden Eagles.

Here's a rundown of what happened in the final 6:59...

*Five missed field goals by ORU.

*Only one made free throw (by Jabbar Singleton) on five attempts by ORU. Emegano's missed foul shot at 5:07 was the front end of a 1-and-1.

*Five ORU personal fouls, leading to right Denver points at the free throw line.

*Three Golden Eagle turnovers.

*One offensive foul on ORU's Korey Billbury. Billbury made a layup that would have given the Golden Eagles a 68-67 lead, but Billbury was charged with an offensive foul and a turnover.

*Twenty Denver points. Twenty to ORU's one. The Pioneers steamrolled their way back thanks to 3-pointers by Nate Engesser and Jalen Love, cutting the Golden Eagles' lead to four after Love's trey with 5:21 left.

*Denver went 5 of 9 from the field.

Add all of that up and it's a recipe for a crushing defeat on the road at Denver. And to not make a singular field goal in nearly seven minutes is pretty astonishing.

- One area of expertise this season for ORU has been getting to the three throw line and knocking down foul shots. Both were lagging against Denver.

The Golden Eagles arrived at the charity stripe 17 times, making only 10 of those attempts for an abysmal 58.8 percent. ORU had been in the top five in the country at free throws made, and it failed to build on one of its strengths.

Harris' 0-of-2 effort and Emegano's 0-of-3 display at the line were especially startling for the Golden Eagles.

- Emegano and Billbury combined for 22 points, and that's just not going to cut it for an ORU team that depends on those two to put up big offensive numbers. On most nights, if the duo can get to 30 points, the Golden Eagles could possible find a way to make that work. Forty points and ORU would be feeling really good.

Emegano and Billbury were a combined 10 of 18 from the field, which isn't bad. But they were 1 of 5 on 3-point attempts and 1 of 4 at the free throw line. Those are less-than-stellar statistics.

"Our two all-conference caliber guards in Korey and Obi have to step up and make plays in a game like this," Sutton said.

So clearly he wasn't fired up by their efforts, either.

The also combined for seven turnovers. Have to clean those up.

- Denver is woeful in the rebounding category, as evidenced by its ranking at the bottom of the NCAA in rebounds per game. Yet, the Pioneers found a way to out-rebound ORU, 23 to 20.

The Golden Eagles did hit 61 percent of their shots, so offensive rebounds weren't prevalent, but to get out-boarded by Denver isn't a good look.

There were 43 total rebounds up for grabs in the game, and ORU should have found a way to get at least 25 of them against a team that's the worst in the nation in grabbing missed shots.

The reality: ORU entered the Wednesday night tied with North Dakota State for first place. The loss sent the Golden Eagles down to third place since South Dakota State pummeled IPFW.

At the conclusion of the weekend, the Summit League regular season will reach about the 45 percent completion mark. The Golden Eagles are likely to still be in the top half of the league, but the loss at Denver could keep them from the top.

Basically, ORU will have to play catch-up in the final month of the regular season.

But for the standings to mean a whole lot, ORU has to find a way to put Wednesday night's loss behind it. There's no doubt that losing that game was deflating, but most teams have to weather that storm at least once a season.

The Golden Eagles suffered much the same fate at Weber State and eventually righted the ship. Same has to be done again.

It won't be easy, though, since South Dakota State comes in Saturday as perhaps the hottest team in the league. But it should be a great showdown. The guard matchups should be fantastic.

We'll just have to wait and see if ORU can phase Denver out of its memory and turn its full attention to the Jackrabbits.

ORU hoops - midweek report, keys vs. Denver, signee updates

Today's links (as seen in the Tulsa World on Wednesday): ...................

- ORU Insider: bit.ly/1J9fBD0

- ORU women's Insider: bit.ly/1J9gyLI

- Summit League Insider: http://bit.ly/1J9hhwf 

Didn't get a chance to post a blog immediately following the IPFW game, so here are a couple of thoughts/observations:

- ORU's role players bailed out Obi Emegano and Korey Billbury.

The Golden Eagles' two stars couldn't get anything to fall throughout most of the game against IPFW. Billbury was void of the shooting stroke he had when he hung 34 points on Omaha a few nights before. Emegano, as is becoming customary, looked hobbled and beat up against IPFW, but he gritted it out and made some key shots late.

Until then, though, Aaron Young, Adrion Webber, Jabbar Singleton and Darian Harris saved the day. IPFW led by as many as seven early in the second half, but the quartet of ORU role players all hit at least one key 3-pointer to either, a) get ORU back in the game, or b) give ORU the lead and help increase its lead.

Harris played only six minutes, but they were highly-effective minutes. His confidence level has been visibly shaky this season, but his lone 3-pointer against the Mastodons appeared to lift the anvil off his shoulders.

"Guys stepped up and made big shots," a relived Scott Sutton said after beating IPFW, 62-58. "Aaron Young was great, Jabbar was good [and] Darian came in and gave us great minutes off the bench."

- Steve Forbes is a solid player IPFW, but he should send a gift basket to the game officials, Gerald Williams, Kyle Ingram and Frank Spencer.

With 8:13 left in the second half, Forbes grabbed a defensive rebound tried to protect his own area, but he started swinging his elbows around — the type of action the NCAA frowns upon now with so many blow-to-the-head concerns. Sure enough, Forbes' left elbow crushed Emegano's face and Emegano crumbled to the ground, leaving the officials no choice but to call a foul on Forbes.

Then the officials went to check the monitor to see if it was any type of flagrant foul. It sure appeared like it was.

Yet, the ruling was a "common foul," resulting in nothing more than a personal foul and a slap on the wrist.

Very, very surprising, I'd say.

(Tried to re-watch Forbes' elbow exhibition, and there appeared to be technical difficulties during the few seconds that Forbes had the ball. Perhaps that's why there wasn't a flagrant tacked on.)

- Emegano, despite being beaten and battered, hit a huge 3-pointer down the stretch. After Denell Henderson gave ORU a 55-53 lead, Emegano followed with a dagger — a trey from the right wing in which he was left wide open.

"That's what you expect out of a guy like him or Korey," Sutton said. "Step up and make a big shot. I have all the confidence in the world in Obi, that he'll take that shot and make it."

Emegano's final shooting line was gruesome: 15 points on 4 of 16 shooting. But he was 5 of 5 at the foul line, and he had four rebounds, four assists and two steals.

- Obviously, a big win for ORU. Golden Eagles eked out wins over IUPUI and IPFW, with a blowout of Omaha sandwiched in between. Not many ORU games will end up like the Omaha track meet; most will be "grinders" as Sutton referred to the IPFW game afterward on Saturday.

Emegano and Billbury are two of the best players in the league, but unless those two combine for 60 a game and the Golden Eagles get a lot of other help, most games will be knock-down-drag-out affairs.

Just buckle up, ORU fans.

Keys to beating Denver tonight...

- Win the rebound battle. Denver has been abysmal when it comes to rebounding the ball in Summit League play. The Pioneers have grabbed 23.2 boards a game.

Should be noted: the Pioneers' two worst rebounding efforts — 10 (Ten!!) against IPFW and 18 versus IUPUI — were both on the road. In three Summit League games at home, Denver is averaging 29.3 rebounds a game.

Still, though, ORU has to let Denell Henderson, Albert Owens and Brandon Conley go to work on the glass. This could be a game where Conley figures out a way to really get going.

- Weather the endurance storm. It's always a topic of discussion for any athletic team that does it, but ORU has to fend off the notion of getting tired quicker at the higher elevation. Denver may be more used to it, but all the same players will be subjected to the same oxygen supply during the game.

Have to find a way to deal with it.

- Get Emegano and Billbury involved quickly. South Dakota State, South Dakota and Western Illinois have ventured into Denver and played a league game. All three were gifted the opportunity to let their best players have good games...

*Denver 76, SDSU 69: The Jackrabbits may have lost, but Jake Bittle (Bixby product), Cody Larson and George Marshall all had at least 13 points. Problem was SDSU's bench was virtually nonexistent.

*South Dakota 74, Denver 69: Tyler Larson had 22 points and Casey Kasperbauer had 15. Like SDSU, though, South Dakota's bench didn't do much.

*Denver 68, Western Illinois 54: Garret Covington had 18 points for the Leathernecks. He didn't receive much help from his teammates, however.

Basically, the point is this: Denver hasn't exactly shut down the opposition's best scoring options, so find a way to get Emegano and Billbury going early on the offensive end.

And the road team has had woeful bench minutes at Denver in league play. ORU will have to get quality playing time from guys like Webber, Owens, Bobby Word and Singleton.

ORU signee updates

- Chris Crawford, Victory Christian

The Conqueror guard had 22 points in VC's 66-54 win over Booker T. Washington on Saturday. The Conquerors will wrap up the week at the Port City Classic in Catoosa.

Victory Christian plays Claremore-Sequoyah in the first round on Thursday.

- Chris Miller, Booker T. Washington

In the Hornets' loss to Victory Christian, Miller had eight points. It's been an up-and-down season so far for the BTW big man.

The Hornets will play in the Union/Jenks Invitational on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

- Javan White, Ames High School (Iowa)

White and the Little Cyclones posted wins over Johnston and Southeast Polk on Friday and Saturday, respectively. White had 10 points and five rebounds against Johnston, and he followed that with nine points and eight rebounds against Southeast Polk.

On Tuesday night, White had 12 points but Ames lost 49-37 to Indianola.

Ames will play at Marshalltown on Friday.

2015 OCS All-State football rosters

East offense

QB: Alan Lockhart (Talihina), Mason Farquhar (Union), Payton Craig (Oologah)

RB: Kyle McLaughlin (Skiatook), Chad Dillard (Berryhill), Seth Bryant (Keota)

WR: Kyle Rhine (Bixby), Carson Epps (Jenks), Cameron Hunter (McAlester), Jordan London (Fort Gibson), Brock Taylor (Locust Grove), Austin Cantrell (Roland), Hunter Rosebrough (Adair)

OL: Davis Harker (Union), Tristan Wyatt (Shawnee), Colton Farris (Cushing), Kutler Cole (Collinsville), Mark Garner (Poteau), Michael Rhoden (Kiefer), Noah Dorton (Dewar)

East defense

DL: Craig Madkisn (Wewoka), Shaun Sykes (Hominy), T.J. Harris (Booker T. Washington), Austin Grotts (Bixby), Marquise Overton (Jenks), Riley Smith (McAlester), Tucker Trowbridge (Talihina)

LB: Gunner Green (Owasso), Reese Davis (Tahlequah), Roman Rodriguez (Wagoner), Rylee Simon (Vian), Seth Glasscock (Nowata)

DB: Markale Moses (Broken Arrow), Dustin Basks (Claremore), Brandon Prather (Stillwater), McKinley Whitfield (Spiro), Kolton Gariss (Owasso)

West offense

QB: Brandon Pollard (Anadarko), Connor McGinnis (Heritage Hall), Tanner Allen (Laverne)

RB: Marquiz Simpkins (Clinton), Dillon Lohr (Carl Albert), Dalton Birch (Laverne)

WR: Dahu Green (Westmoore), Lorenzo West (Lawton MacArthur), Chezden Nease (Thomas), Jalen Domebo (Apache), Kade Vanmeter (OCS), L'liott Curry (Guthrie)

OL: Kaden Jackson (Kingfisher), Riley Joe Daniel (Ringling), Brett Wilson (Cashion), Tyler Stilwell (Yukon), Devin Gates (Lawton), Tyrell Johnson (Edmond North), Carson Smith (Blanchard)

West defense

DL: Dewayne Doucette (Lawton), Dejai Johnson (Midwest City), Malik Boardingham (Anadarko), Bobby Henry (Southmoore), Brandon Rolin (Purcell), Connor Cherry (Lawton MacArthur)

LB: Beau Davis (Guthrie), Abe Ortega (Hennessey), Cameron Carson (Midwest City), Keaton Bell (Southmoore), Mitchell Howe (Okeene), Parker Bolles (Newcastle)

DB: Blake Summers (Davis), Luke Frankfurt (OCS), Antonio Cole (Edmond North), Kevion McGee (Ardmore), Cassius Hill (Westmoore), Chase Skelton (Bishop McGuinness)

ORU vs. Omaha — the good, the bad and the reality

The good: This could get quite lengthy, mainly because of ORU's offensive onslaught against an Omaha defense that was powerless to stop it.

So, here we go...

- Oral Roberts' unyielding shooting performance. Obi Emegano missed a jumper and Adrion Webber missed a 3-point try to start the game, but it was all roses from there for the Golden Eagles, who shot 58.1 percent (36 of 52) from the field. Perhaps the most surprising thing to discover is it wasn't that long ago that ORU had a better shooting night.

The Golden Eagles were an unconscious bunch on Nov. 16 of last year, shooting an absurd 29 of 48 (60.4 percent) from the field against Texas State. ORU also drained 10 of 15 trey attempts in that 82-65 win over the Bobcats.

But ORU's 102-86 pasting of Omaha on Wednesday might have been more impressive since the Golden Eagles made 20 of 22 free throw shots.

"Our guys got going early and got some confidence," ORU coach Scott Sutton said. "That was fun to be a part of, because we're not going to be able to do that very often."

It was ORU's first time above the century mark since hanging triple digits on Missouri-Kansas City on Feb. 10, 2011. Credit to Bobby Word for draining the last-second 3 to send ORU past the lofty scoring mark. (The game was well in hand with the Golden Eagles up 99-86, but it's hard to tell a group of college kids to pull back and not try to score 100 when it's a number they rarely get to. That's something I think the Omaha coaches understood, too.)

- Korey Billbury went bonkers — but in a really good way. Everything he shot was with confidence, and it genuinely looked like it was going in.

Well, most of it did. He was 13 of 19 from the floor, 3 of 6 from deep and 5 of 6 at the charity stripe.

"God is good. I can't take any credit for that," said Billbury, who sported a new shaved-head look without his customary dreadlocks that had become synonymous with ORU hoops. "I just shot the ball, got on a roll and God blessed me with a great game. Hopefully just keep building off of that."

His new career high came four days after he mustered only seven points before fouling out at Western Illinois.

Oh, and Billbury had seven rebounds and five assists against Omaha. Not a bad night, I'd say.

- Jabbar Singleton and Adrion Webber hit some key 3s for ORU against Omaha. Singleton, who finished with a new career high 10 points, nailed two treys in the first half to spearhead ORU's surge right before halftime, and Webber showed his sharp-shooting abilities in the second half to continue to build the Golden Eagles' comfortable cushion.

"Jabbar has been great in practice shooting the ball the last couple of days," Sutton said. "It's a lot different from game to practice, but when he made that first one I thought he was shooting with a great deal of confidence. He made a ton of 3s the last two or three days.

"I thought Ace (Webber) hit two big shots at the start of the second half. Kind of got us a little bit of separation up there around 15 or 16. Once you get it up there, it's a pretty big hill to climb for a team to come back — especially on the road."

- ORU had two turnovers in the first 20 minutes of action against Omaha. Ball protection like that is hard to come by and will win teams a lot of games.

- Seven ORU players dished out an assist against the Mavericks. Sharing the ball like that will make the Golden Eagles even harder to defend.

- A very small snippet of the game was Aaron Young's drive to the basket and layup at the 4:44 mark of the first half. Doesn't seem like much, but that's a dimension of Young's game that hadn't really been around much this year.

He's done a good enough job of running the offense most times, and he's spotted up and nailed some 3s from time to time. But his aggressiveness was refreshing to see, and the take to the basket was done under control and with plenty of purpose.

That could serve him well moving forward.

The bad: It'd be unfair to start with anything but Omaha's defense. Horrendous isn't close to accurately describing how the Mavericks defended the Golden Eagles.

Few teams in the league will flip on the after-burners and race up and down the floor like Omaha, but the other teams will at least attempt to find the defensive realm.

It's not as if the Mavericks were dead corpses on defense, but ORU enjoyed the multitude of open offensive looks.

"...We didn't guard," Omaha coach Derrin Hansen said. Late in the first half, "I thought we gave up a little spurt there that got them over the hump."

The truth is: Omaha's entire defensive display got ORU over the hump.

Leading the Summit League in scoring is well and good, but at some point keeping the other team from easy layups or wide-open jumpers has to be on the priority list.

- Not a great night for Denell Henderson and Albert Owens. Both ORU big men fought through foul trouble.

Henderson had four points and six rebounds, but he also registered four fouls and four turnovers.

Owens had two points, one rebound and three fouls. His memorable moment of the night was attempting a reverse layup under the basket that resulted in the ball missing the glass completely before ending up on top of the backboard.

- Dederick Lee attempted a wide-open 3 to try and get ORU past the 100-point mark late in the second half. He missed.

The poor redshirt freshman just can't seem to get going on offense this year. I would think making that shot would have erased a lot of bad memories from a mostly disjointed season to this point.

- Brandon Conley was also in early foul trouble for ORU, and that was despite coming off the bench.

Conley had started the last two games, but Sutton inserted Webber into the starting lineup to send a message.

The reality: ORU is above the .500 mark at 9-8 and feeling pretty good about life now. Things were far less rosy a month ago.

Now the Golden Eagles are tied for first in the Summit League at 3-1, thanks to South Dakota taking down North Dakota State last night. Both of those clubs are now tied with ORU in first, and South Dakota State is lurking at 3-2.

The league appears to be taking shape, with the four aforementioned teams vying for the title. Maybe one of the bottom five teams can make a run, but falling further behind at this point is a big blow to those teams.

North Dakota State now returns home to host Western Illinois on Friday, and that looks to be the Bison's remedy after the setback Wednesday.

ORU hosts IPFW on Saturday, the same day that South Dakota State hosts South Dakota in what should be a pretty compelling game.

IUPUI and Omaha clash Sunday in Nebraska. It's a game that could spell long-term doom for the loser.

Bottom line: ORU continues to win in Summit League play, and the momentum only continues to grow, especially after 102-point showings in the scoring column.

ORU hoops - keys vs. Omaha, signee update

First off, a little bit on ORU's road win at Western Illinois...

- Obi Emegano is one tough dude. It was evident that he wasn't himself after hyper-extending his left leg at home against IUPUI. He finished with nine points and missed shots he would normally make.

Then came his 28-point performance at Western Illinois, the place where his collegiate career began. Coincidence? Who knows. Either way, what a big-time showing, especially with his scoring sidekick, Korey Billbury, in constant foul trouble.

Fourteen connections on 16 free throw attempts isn't bad either.

- If ORU has any chance of winning the Summit League's regular-season crown, winning at a place like Western Illinois was a must. Golden Eagles need to find a way to pile up as many road victories as possible.

- If Adrion Webber can contribute 11 points and eight rebounds every game, ORU would be nearly unstoppable. The problem is that he's done that only a few times this year.

- Darian Harris churned out another scoreless night in seven minutes. I just can't imagine him getting many more minutes the rest of the season, barring any substantial foul trouble.

But enough about the past. ORU hosts Omaha tonight at the Mabee Center, and here are a few keys...

- ORU has to take advantage of easy scoring opportunities. Omaha is last in the league in scoring defense, and it's because it plays a fast-paced, race-up-and-down-the-floor type of game. It would be advantageous for the Golden Eagles to convert on some easy layups and thwart any quick attacks by Omaha the other way.

- Omaha's CJ Carter has been better on the road than at home, so the Golden Eagles should make another Maverick try and beat them. Of course, that should be the game plan for every team when it faces Omaha. 

Omaha has four other players that have double-digit scoring averages, but none are quite as electric as Carter. Make Mike Rostampour or Tre'Shawn Thurman beat you, since Denell Henderson and Albert Owens have done well playing defense down low as of late.

- The Golden Eagles need to win the free-throw battle. Few teams in the country are better at making free throws than ORU and Omaha, so the team that makes more freebies probably wins. The good news is ORU makes a higher percentage - 73.3 to 69.2 - of its free throws than the Mavericks.

Finally, here's are some quick updates on ORU's signing class of 2014...

- Javan White (Ames, Iowa) had 10 blocks in Ames' win over Ankeny on Tuesday. He preceded that with a 36-point, 16-rebound effort in a loss to Cedar Rapids Kennedy on Saturday.

- Chris Crawford of Victory Christian had 21 points in the Conquerors' 69-32 rout of Rejoice Christian on Tuesday. Crawford will face off with fellow ORU signee, Booker T. Washington's Chris Miller, on Saturday.

IUPUI at ORU — the good, the bad and the reality

The good: Can start by mentioning that ORU beat IUPUI 69-61 in overtime. Any win is good, right?

ORU coach Scott Sutton wasn't in any mood to reject a Summit League victory in the media work room after the game.

"Sometimes, the team that deserves to win doesn't," Sutton said. "That was probably the case tonight."

Depends on how you look at it, I suppose.

ORU, now one game under .500 overall at 7-8 and 1-1 in Summit League play, led IUPUI for 35 minutes and one second, so the Golden Eagles were clearly in charge for most of the game. They just weren't ahead of the pack in crunch time.

Fortunately for ORU, it pieced together a rally and IUPUI's Marcellus Barksdale left the door open for a comeback when he missed a free throw with 13 seconds left. The miss kept the Jaguars' lead at three, and Bobby Word connected on a 3-pointer that featured anything but ideal form and charisma with one second left.

"I wasn't expecting it to go in, I promise ya," Sutton said. "Nothing against Bobby."

It was Word's only 3-pointer he connected on during the game. He had one wayward attempt in the first half.

For the third time in four games and for the fifth time this season, guard Korey Billbury scored 20-plus points for the Golden Eagles. He notched a game-high 23 points, made nine of 20 field goals and grabbed seven rebounds to go along with two blocks.

"Overall, the game was a confidence boost, just to take care of the win at home," Billbury said. "Coach emphasizes that we need to go undefeated at home and take care of business here first to be a championship-contending team."

ORU avoided a repeat of the 2000-2001 season, when the Golden Eagles stared league play 0-2.

"To go to 0-2 and losing a home game would have been a tough hill to climb," Sutton said. "I'll take it."

A cringe-worthy scene in the first half for ORU fans turned into a huge sigh of relief. At the 15:50 mark of the first half, guard Obi Emegano, ORU's leading scorer this season, went down hard and didn't immediately get up. He eventually made it to his feet, and he gingerly limped to the locker room.

That's horrifying for ORU fans, knowing the Emegano missed all but three games for the Golden Eagles last year because of an ACL tear.

But, Emegano returned midway through the first half, and he collected nine points in 34 minutes.

Sutton elaborated on Emegano's status after the game.

"He hyper-extended his knee. He kept telling me he was OK, but I could tell it obviously it wasn't OK. Sometimes 75 percent Obi is better than what we have on the bench.

"He kept telling me he was fine, but I probably should have rested him and got somebody else in the game. You know when he misses that many shots, he's not OK."

Also worth mentioning that ORU showed some grit late in the game — down five with 33 seconds left — and managed to prolong the game to overtime. Golden Eagles, just as easily, could have packed it in and started sulking about another loss.

ORU has played five games at home, and the Golden Eagles are unbeaten in those. Winning at home is always a good thing.

The bad: Emegano, shooting 42.5 percent (68 of 160) from the field prior to playing IUPUI, went 3 of 11 from the floor against the Jaguars. His nine points weren't a season-low since he was limited to seven points at both Oregon State and Weber State. He was also scoreless at Oklahoma.

Emegano's less-than-100 percent health also kept him from getting to the free-throw line — a trait that he's one of the best in the nation at. Emegano got the foul line five times, and he only made two of the freebies.

ORU's bench had been outscored by opponents in eight games prior to Wednesday night, and it happened again versus IUPUI. The Jags — who could make an instructional video on how not to score — had 17 points off their bench against ORU. The Golden Eagles' bench logged 59 minutes and scored only 11 points — nine of which came from Word.

ORU led by as many as nine in the first half. The Golden Eagles possessed a 10-point lead in the second half. Both of those leads waved bye-bye in mere minutes.

Looking disinterested early on, IUPUI looked like it could have been finished off by even a halfway forceful effort from the Golden Eagles. Yet, the door was left open for the Jaguars to hang around, and they gladly accepted.

"I'm disappointed in how our guys played," Sutton said. "After we built leads of nine points in the first half, and then we built a lead of 10 points in the second half, we just quit playing. We're not good enough to do that. We're not good enough just to coast in and beat anybody. Guys have to learn that."

Adrion Webber was considered a big key for ORU this season. His 3-point shooting ability was supposed to be marksman-like, allowing ORU a constant deep threat any time he's on the floor.

It hasn't worked out that way. Webber is shooting 27.8 percent (10 of 36) from deep, and his minutes are starting to dwindle. Outside of playing 21 minutes against Haskell, Webber hasn't played more than 14 minutes in a game since Dec. 20.

Jabbar Singleton played nine minutes against IUPUI, and here's his final stat line: zero points, zero shot attempts, zero rebounds, zero assists, one steal and two personal fouls. That's not going to cut it for any player anywhere.

The reality: ORU didn't make it a thing of beauty, but victories are to be cherished. That's how Sutton is going to view it.

What we all need to realize is that ORU and IUPUI are destined to play overtime games all the time. In 35 of the meetings between the two teams, seven have now gone to overtime. So fans in Indianapolis on Feb. 5 had better prepare themselves.

South Dakota State blew out Western Illinois on Wednesday, so ORU can either further damage the Leathernecks' psyche or the Golden Eagles can allow Western Illinois off the mat. ORU will tip at Macomb, Illinois on Saturday night at 7.

Basically, the Summit League is wide open. IPFW is in last place at 0-2, and the Mastadons were picked to win the league. North Dakota State was picked in the middle of the pack, but it's 2-0 looks indestructible at home. There are now five teams tied at 1-1 in Summit League play.

Really, it's there for the taking. Just depends on which Summit League team wants to get hot and rattle off a 7- to 10-game winning streak.

ORU observations - vs. IUPUI

First half

- Brandon Conley took ORU's first two shots of the night. With Korey Billbury and Obi Emegano leading the charge offensively, Conley certainly doesn't figure to be the Golden Eagles' early igniter on offense.

- Emegano went down hard at the 15:50 mark and was slow getting up. As his teammates went and gathered for the first media timeout, Emegano limped straight to the locker room, accompanied by trainer John Joslin.

After Emegano missed the majority of last season with a torn ACL, anytime he starts limping around it's cause for concern for the Golden Eagles.

- IUPUI looked disinterested after taking an early 5-2 lead. Jaguars appeared disjointed on offense and had seven turnovers before the second media timeout.

- Emegano, still limping, returned for the Golden Eagles with 9:33 left until halftime. Obviously a huge sigh of relief for ORU.

- Sure enough, ORU goes up 14-5 and looks like it could coast past IUPUI. Then the Jaguars amp up the intensity and take a 15-14 lead. Go figure, right?

- The curious cases of Dederick Lee and Darian Harris continue. ORU coach Scott Sutton has threatened to shorten his rotation, yet the two redshirt freshman continue to log decent minutes.

On one possession late in first half, Lee drove to the basket and missed badly on a contested layup. An offensive rebound afforded Harris a chance to launch a 3-pointer from the top of the key, and he missed.

So it goes.

- Teams strive for offensive balance. IUPUI has it — but not in a good way.

The Jaguars are devoid of an assertive offensive presence. That could be a good thing, making the defense work to guard everyone on the floor.

However, it's not exactly a strength for IUPUI. The Jags just have a bunch of guys never really looking to take a shot. In games that are tight late, the Jags will wish they had someone that wants to take over.

- Game was tied at 23 at the half. ORU may regret not putting IUPUI away when it had the chance early in the first half.

Second half

- At one point, ORU had a 41-31 lead. Then the quintet of Emegano, Conley, Harris, Albert Owens and Jabbar Singleton manged to let it the advantage slip away.

IUPUI was within 41-39 with 10:29 left.

- Justus Stanback took over offensively for IUPU, and that's rare for a Jags player to do that. Stanback had 10 points in the second half — which in IUPUI terms is like scoring 67 points in a half.

- ORU's Denell Henderson made a backwards layup with 2:55. That's the best I know how to describe it.

While posted just below the block, Henderson gained possession of the basketball and there were no good options to attack the basket. So, Henderson just leapt into the air and somehow contorted his right arm to where he was able to make a shot off the glass.

Definitely one of the more bizarre layups I've ever seen. But kudos to Henderson for finding a way to make that work.

- IUPUI was up five with 33 seconds left. Sure looked like the Jaguars were going to steal another road win. But....

- IUPUI imploded in the final half minute. It all started with Korey Billbury's drive to the basket and missed layup with 27 seconds left. Billbury grabbed his own rebound, went back up to try again and he converted that time, all while being fouled by IUPUI's Khufu Najee. Horrendous mistake on Najee's part.

Billbury sank the free throw, and suddenly ORU was within striking distance of somehow keeping the game alive.

- Then IUPUI couldn't get the ball up the court. ORU employed some vicious traps, requiring IUPUI to call consecutive 30-second timeouts.

With 13 seconds left, Marcellus Barksdale received an inbounds pass, and was immediately surrounded by three ORU defenders. How Barksdale wasn't called for a travel or for stepping out of bounds is mind-boggling. But, he was ultimately fouled by Brandon Conley and ventured to the free-throw line — where two makes would have likely ended the game.

However....

- Barksdale made his first free throw and missed left on the second one, giving ORU one last chance.

- Sutton opted not to take a timeout on ORU's final possession.

Billbury sprinted up the court on the right side, eventually weaving his way across the court before dumping a pass off to Aaron Young on the left wing. Young dribbled three times as he ventured to his right, and he handed off a pass to Bobby Word, who was scoreless in the second half and was basically an after-thought throughout most of the game.

That all changed — and quickly.

While blanketed by Najee, Word frantically searched for a shot. It had to be a 3-pointer, of course.

Word never got a clean look, so he just jumped up and to his right to try and create some sort of separation. Needless to say, Word was off-balance, and he basically thrust the ball into the air with his right arm, using his left arm to keep some distance between himself and Najee.

And wouldn't you know: Word's 3 dropped in and the 2,836 in attendance went berserk.

A crazy, hopeless full-court attempt by IUPUI at the buzzer was way off and the game miraculously had new life.

- Worth noting: IUPUI's lack of a dominant scorer hurt late. Not a single Jags player looked like he wanted to take control.

Barksdale looks like a player that could command a dominant scoring role, but he disappears way too much to be considered a legitimate threat.

OT

- If it's ORU and IUPUI, the 40 minutes in regulation should be considered play time. The game is almost guaranteed to venture into overtime.

Seven of the 35 matchups between the two clubs have now required extra time. At least fans get their money's worth.

- Henderson grabbed the game by the throat in OT. Such a luxury for ORU when he decides to be an enforcer down low.

- IUPUI got to within four with 35 second left. Then the Jags opted to start fouling; that's a less than ideal strategy.

Word had converted on all 12 of his free throws inside the final five minutes — or in overtime — in games played this year. He added to that total, draining all four attempts from the foul line in the final 34 seconds, and ORU ended up coasting to an eight-point win.

- To find a way to come back and win that, it could very well save ORU's season. Now the Golden Eagles get to go play a Western Illinois team that was run out of South Dakota State on a rail on Wednesday night.