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.
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