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.
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