SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Whatever narrow path North Dakota State had to the Summit League men's basketball championship squeezed shut in a hurry Tuesday night against Oral Roberts, like the walls of a tomb in an Indiana Jones movie. Only the walls had names like Connor Vanover, Patrick Mwamba and Max Abmas.
Of course, Max Abmas.
Except there was no miracle escape for the Bison.
Remember the 2021 title game, played in a nearly empty Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls because of COVID? Oral Roberts led 45-20 at halftime of that one, only to see the Bison scratch back to tie it before losing 75-72 thanks in part to a hack job on NDSU's Sam Griesel that wasn't called.
The halftime score this go-around was 51-20 in favor of the Golden Eagles and nobody in the Denny Sanford Premier Center had a question about the outcome. NDSU wasn't coming back in this one.
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"I believe they just punched us in the face. We weren't ready for it," said junior guard Boden Skunberg, one of the few Bison who looked comfortable on this night.
The Bison were overwhelmed in every which way against Oral Roberts, unable to handle the Golden Eagles' size, quickness, length, shooting and veteran presence.
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?
Mwamba blew on his fingers and stuck them in imaginary holsters to taunt the Gold Star Marching Band after swishing a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer, for goodness sake. When you're taunting the kid with a saxaphone, things are probably going well.
"You got a mature group. I don't want to put words in Paul's mouth, but sometimes the greatest challenge is getting them to the finish line," Bison coach Dave Richman said. "And when you get them to the finish like it's just about turning them loose."
The final score was 92-58, with ORU coach and Sioux Falls ambassador Paul Mills heading for the NCAA Division I tournament. The Golden Eagles, 21-0 against Summit League competition this season, are good. They could be a 12 seed, high for this conference.
"You saw a really hungry group, a really mature group," Richman said. "They made shots. They beat us to some loose balls. They got us on the glass. I'm not going to backpedal on anything I said the last two night's sitting here in this same chair. I'm very proud of the growth of this group, but we ran into a really mature, hungry group today."
Everything that went well for NDSU in the semifinal blowout over South Dakota State the previous night disappeared in the title game. The Bison looked like the young, sometimes offensively challenged team that popped up various times during the conference season.
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ORU had much to do with that. The Golden Eagles were flying from the jump and the Bison looked flat.
"I think they just ran out of gas," Mills said.
Grant Nelson went from 20 points and 22 rebounds in a dominant performance to a hesitant, muted one. ORU's size, starting but not ending with the 7-foot-5 Vanover, was an issue. Nelson had three points and three rebounds at halftime, finishing with nine and five.
A rare single-single.
It was possibly Nelson's final game in a Bison uniform after three seasons. He'll hire an agent in the coming weeks and declare for the NBA Draft. He can still return to college, but that doesn't mean it'll be in Fargo.
The NBA isn't the only big league that pays these days.
Freshman point guard Damari Wheeler-Thomas, the unexpected hero against the Jackrabbits with 17 points and seven assists, was without a point or an assist midway through the second half against ORU.
ORU rolled with what can be described as an unremarkable game from Abmas, the senior sharpshooter and one of the nation's best scorers. When you're down 30 to the Golden Eagles and Abmas isn't going off like a grenade, you're in trouble.
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"I think today we came out with the right energy. Yesterday, we didn't come out with the right energy," said Abmas, referring to ORU's narrow victory over St. Thomas in the semifinals. "That was the big thing for today, coming out with the right energy and keeping that energy through the whole game. I thought we did a good job with that."
He still finished with 26 points, by the way. As quiet a 26 points as you'll see.
Instead, it was Mwamba and Vanover doing the most damage at opposite ends of the court.
Mwamba, 6-7 and stuck together like a brick building, hit his season-high in points with his 3-pointer to end the half and finished with 20. Left open to shoot 3-pointers, he made four after making 11 all season.
"I trust my game," Mwamba said. "It didn't just start in March. It didn't start in February. It started in May when I was working out at 6 a.m., 7 o'clock in the morning. This team is just incredible. This team, you go into the gym at 'x' a.m. in the morning shooting. That motivates you."
Vanover, a transfer from Arkansas brought to Tulsa to provide defense in the lane and around the rim, did his job. He was swatting at Bison shots like King Kong swatted at biplanes. He had six blocked shots, stifling NDSU's 6-10 Andrew Morgan twice in the first half the 6-11 Nelson once in the second.
Vanover, not Nelson, had the double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
"Connor's a big piece of us. On the defensive end he's protecting the rim, protecting the paint. He's able to block shots. He's the defensive player of the year for a reason," Abmas said.
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Perhaps the tightest competition of the day was between ORU and the South Dakota State women for who had the most muted postgame title celebration. The Jackrabbits won 93-51 over Omaha earlier in a game that was somehow less competitive than the men's title game.
"You know the Muhammed Ali quote, 'You run in the dark to dance in the lights?'" Mills said. "You're aware of all the running in the dark to get to dance, so you're happy when it comes to fruition under the lights."
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