Oral Roberts entered the Summit League tournament as a No. 4 seed before winning three games in three days to secure an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament. The Golden Eagles were given a No. 15 seed and a meeting with No. 2 Ohio State, a team that just took No. 1 seed Illinois to overtime in the Big Ten tournament championship game. Oral Roberts was a massive underdog and not a very popular upset pick.
How Oral Roberts shocked Ohio State in March Madness
The No. 15 seed Golden Eagles pulled off the massive overtime upset against two-seed Ohio State in the NCAA tournament.
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Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
The Golden Eagles delivered a shocker to Ohio State on Friday afternoon, beating the Buckeyes 75-72 in overtime in the first round of the 2021 men’s NCAA tournament.
No. 15 seeds entered the year 8-132 all-time in the NCAA tournament, so this is a massive upset any way you spin it. It’s terrific news the rest of the bottom half of the bracket in the South region, but Oral Roberts won’t be an easy out against anyone.
The Golden Eagles now face No. 7 seed Florida in the round of 32 on Sunday after the Gators beat Virginia Tech in overtime to open their tournament run.
Max Abmas was on fire for Oral Roberts
Max Abmas led DI in scoring this season, averaging 24.2 points per game entering the tournament. If anyone thought the Oral Roberts sophomore wouldn’t be able to get buckets against a power conference team, they were sorely mistaken.
Abmas popped off for 29 points on 10-of-24 shooting from the field and 5-of-10 shooting from three-point range to power Oral Roberts to the win.
Abmas played all 45 minutes in the game.
Abmas had posted solid scoring numbers in the regular season against Missouri, Wichita State, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, so maybe we shouldn’t be surprised he was able to score on Ohio State. A veteran OSU team shouldn’t have been caught sleeping on the country’s leading scorer.
Ohio State entered the tournament with the No. 78 overall defense in the country, and Abmas and his teammates were able to take advantage of a unit that had showed signs of vulnerability all year.
Ohio State kept coughing the ball up
The Buckeyes’ offense entered the tournament at No. 4 in the country in efficiency, and mostly did well to avoid turnovers. Ohio State’s 15.3 percent turnover rate ranked No. 12 in the country.
Ohio State couldn’t stop turning over the ball against Oral Roberts, though. The Buckeyes finished with 15 turnovers, to just six for the Golden Eagles.
Credit Oral Roberts’ team defense for often doubling the ball and forcing the steal. The Buckeyes were also hurt by their lack of spacing, and had several critical turnovers late in regulation.
Oral Roberts won the game at the three-point line
The Golden Eagles only shot 35.7 percent from the field, while Oho State shot 43.3 percent. The difference? The Golden Eagles went 11-of-35 from three, while OSU finished 5-of-23 from deep.
In addition to Abmas’ standout performance, teammate Kevin Obanor had 30 points and 11 rebounds in the win.
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