Bisons Preps for Oral Roberts

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NDSU WITH A CHANCE TO WIN THE SUMMIT LEAGUE.




The North Dakota State men?s basketball team (18-9, 10-4) travels to Oral Roberts (8-21, 4-11) on Wednesday, Feb. 22, and Omaha (14-13, 7-7) on Saturday, Feb. 25, to close out the regular season. The Bison enter the week in a first-place tie with South Dakota.
Feb. 22 at Oral Roberts 7 p.m. CT ESPN3
Feb. 25 at Omaha 7 p.m. CT


About Oral Roberts:

The Golden Eagles are 7-5 at home this year, but were officially eliminated from Summit League Tournament contention with IUPUI?s win over Denver on Sunday.
The Golden Eagles rank 30th in the nation in free throw percentage at 75.6 percent. Defensively, ORU ranks 310th in the country in field goal percentage with opponents shooting 46.9 percent on the year. Junior center Albert Owens is averaging 17.2 points and 5.4 rebounds, and senior guard Jalen Bradley is scoring 14.0 points per contest.
Scott Sutton is in his 18th season as the head coach at Oral Roberts.

 

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Disappointing season coming to an early end for Oral Roberts



Rare are the days that Scott Sutton encounters something new in his 18th year as Oral Roberts? basketball coach. That makes the Golden Eagles? final home game of the season against North Dakota State on Wednesday quite unique.
Once the game is over, so is ORU?s season. The Golden Eagles will finish ninth in the Summit League, and only the top eight teams advance to the conference tournament in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

It will be the first time Sutton and Co. haven?t at least appeared in the league tournament.
?Wednesday night will be a first for me,? he said. ?Wednesday will show what kind of character we have.?

Returning home from a loss at South Dakota, ORU watched as IUPUI won at Denver on Sunday to erase any hopes the Golden Eagles had of qualifying for a spot in Sioux Falls. That set the stage for a bittersweet finale for four ORU seniors, Aaron Young, Aaron Anderson, Jalen Bradley and Isaac Gilliam.

?It?s very tough,? said Young, who has 527 career points in three seasons for the Golden Eagles. ?It?s not how I pictured my last season at all.?
Sutton was hoping for a better alternative for his senior group.

?I feel sorry for our seniors,? said Sutton, whose club is 8-21 overall and 4-11 in the Summit League. ?This is not how any group of seniors should have to end their senior night.?
Perhaps adding to the frustration is the fact the Golden Eagles let several Summit games slip through their fingers. In road games at North Dakota State and South Dakota State and a home game against Denver, ORU led by at least 10 points. But each of those leads evaporated and ultimately turned into losses.

?There were seven or eight games that we had a chance to win and we lost,? Sutton said. ?That?s the difference in winning the conference championship.?

Said Young, ?It?s been frustrating. We had a lot of games that we let slip away, and we?re here because of it.?