Oral Roberts became only the second number 15 to reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament when the Golden Eagles dropped Florida’s seventh seed number 81-78 on Sunday. Just two days after taking Oral Roberts to a shocking loss in second position at Ohio State, the pair of Max Abmas and Kevin Obanor went up again with 54 points combined.
Florida led 67-56 with 9:48 left, but cooled off late when Oral Roberts proved once again that he has the clutch gene. The eagles were particularly strong on the free-throw line, hitting 19 out of 23 attempts.
Next, for Oral Roberts, it will be a Sweet 16 matchup with the No. 3 seed Arkansas, which survived Texas Tech 68-66 on Sunday. The teams have already met once this season, and Oral Roberts scared the Razorbacks. The Golden Eagles really led 40-30 at the break, before Arkansas returned with a 87-76 victory.
But Oral Roberts has since proven that he can stay with anyone in the country and, if he wins Arkansas, he will become the first number 15 seed to reach Elite Eight. The only other No. 15 seed to reach Sweet 16 was the Florida Gulf Coast in 2013, when it won No. 2 Seed Georgetown and No. 7 seed San Diego State the first weekend and lost to No. 3 seed Florida on Doce 16.
Indomitable Double
Abmas entered the NCAA Tournament as the country’s top scorer and has only increased his advantage in that category with two heroic displays so far at the NCAA Tournament. Obanor has been by his side in goals throughout the season and has even accelerated his game on the big stage.
The two scored 59 combined points, while each played every second of the win in overtime against the Buckeyes. Both played the entire game again on Sunday, and Obanor left his best for last. The 1.80m junior scored 20 of his 28 points in the second half, including 13 in the last 10 minutes.
Anxious
Paul Mills took over as Oral Roberts’ coach prior to the 2017-18 season, after working on Baylor’s team under Scott Drew from 2003 to 2017. Now, he is just one win away from a potential clash with his former team. Baylor is the number 1 seed in the southern region. With a win over Arkansas, Oral Roberts would likely face Baylor with a Final Four spot in play.
The first meeting between ORU and Razorbacks took place on December 20, and Arkansas caught fire in the second half with 57 points to avoid a defeat. But Abmas had an unusually quiet game, scoring just 11 points out of 4 out of 11 shots. Arkansas will need to review the tape and see what it did to contain the 1.80 meter dynamo in that dispute, because the defensive strategies employed by the state of Ohio and Florida clearly failed.
Florida folds
The Gators did not score in the final 2:29, after winning what appeared to be a comfortable advantage in the middle of the second half. In the end, they were defeated 25-11, as their season of adversity had a disappointing ending.
In a way, getting to the edge of Sweet 16 should be considered a success for Florida, after losing Keyontae Johnson, preseason player of the year, Keyontae Johnson, after his frightening collapse on the Florida state court on December 12. . But the Gators met without him and even reached number 22 in the AP vote in February. However, Florida has lost four of its last six games and this now marks three consecutive appearances at the NCAA Tournament, which saw Florida fail to escape the first weekend.