SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - For a city of around 150,000 residents, and a metropolitan area with fewer than 200,000, the people of “Siouxland” sure do know how to support a basketball tournament.

Last year, The Summit League Tournament set record attendance numbers in its first year in Sioux Falls, by drawing 34,681, and shattering the previous high by more than 6,000. Corporate sponsorships were also at a record high last year.

This year, with advance ticket sales, sponsorships and a new television package, the tournament was ahead of last year’s pace.

What makes this even more impressive is the fact that the four previous years the tournament was held in Tulsa where the attendance totals ranged from 22,291 to 28,000.

Tulsa is a city of about 400,000 with a metro area of close to 600,000.

The excuses I’ve heard have included - there’s more to do in Tulsa than Sioux Falls. Well, that may be true, but there are more people in Tulsa, and one would think more sports fans with more money to spend.

Someone said to me, “Tulsa’s just not a good sports town.”

I don’t buy that excuse either. Why else do we seem to keep attracting more and more professional sports and amateur sports events to our city, including major golf tournaments?

Tulsa has every imaginable minor league sport you can think of, and this week the Conference USA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments are in town, and next year the BOK Center is poised to host an NCAA basketball regional. So, Tulsa must be a pretty good sports town, or at least we have everyone else fooled.

Kudos to Sioux Falls for doing an excellent job in hosting the Summit League Tournament, and let this be a warning to you, Tulsa - the C-USA Tournament better attract huge crowds, or we may not be a host city for this caliber of athletic events in the future.

SUMMIT LEAGUE DIARY

As a member of the ORU Pep Band, I jumped on the bus Friday morning for the long 12-hour trek to Sioux Falls. First up, at the tournament was the ORU women’s quarterfinal game against Southern Utah Saturday at noon.

The ORU ladies were led by Jordan Pyle who scored 26 points and had seven rebounds, in defeating Southern Utah, 97-81. Freshman standout Kevi Luper added 18 points for the winners. The No. 1 seed Golden Eagles advance to play No. 4 seed UMKC on Monday.

Sunday I had the privilege of playing a couple of solos at a nearby church for both of their morning services. I was welcomed by pastor Kirk Strand and his friendly congregation at Brandon Valley Assembly of God.

That evening it was time for the ORU men and their quarterfinal matchup with North Dakota State. The Golden Eagles had a 13-point lead in the second half, but scored only six points in the final 10:47 of regulation.

The Bison tied the game at 56 to send it to overtime, and ORU squeaked out the win, 65-64, to advance to a semifinal matchup with IUPUI. Dominique Morrison led ORU with 16 points.

“Well, I told our guys in the locker room that this time of year, it doesn’t matter how you get it done, how the game goes, how bad you played - just get it done. And, you live to fight another day, and that’s what we did tonight,” said ORU head coach Scott Sutton. “We just, I thought played pretty well, from the 10-minute mark in the first half probably until the 10-minute mark of the second half. We got up 13, had a chance to extend it several times, we could just never get it above 13.”

On Monday afternoon, the ORU women led by the Summit League regular-season MVP Luper who scored 26 points, defeated UMKC, 77-71, to advance to the tournament championship game.

“I feel good, obviously, with the win,” said ORU head coach Jerry Finkbeiner. “We don’t look at the stat page, it wasn’t a pretty stat page for us, but UMKC’s quickness really affected us. We had a hard time with their defensive pressure and ball pressure. So, we’re happy with this win. We played UMKC last weekend, just like we played (first-round opponent) Southern Utah last weekend, so a lot of miles, a lot of action in the last seven days. So, I’m proud of our girls, we’re going to the championship game.”

The Golden Eagles will be in the title game for third time in four years, and have tourney crowns in 1999, 2001 2005, 2007 and 2008.

On Tuesday afternoon, the ORU women rallied from 10 points down to tie the

game at 69 and send it to overtime, but the No. 3 seed South Dakota State

Jackrabbits made timely free throws down the stretch to defeat the Golden

Eagles, 79-75. It’s the second consecutive Summit League Tournament title for

SDSU (22-10), and the team receives the automatic bid to the NCAA Women’s

Basketball Tournament.

Questionable calls by the officials in the final minutes of regulation,

and a couple of missed shots by the Golden Eagles proved too much to overcome.

“I am trying to be a good loser,” said ORU head coach Jerry Finkbeiner.

“But I am disappointed in a lot of things that happened. I was really pleased

with the way our team played. We had several chances to win but I don’t think it

was meant to be.”

The Golden Eagles finish the season 23-9.

On Monday night, the ORU men erased a 19-point deficit to take a 61-60 lead with 4:22 remaining in the game, but fell short as IUPUI finished strong taking the win, 69-65, and advancing to the men’s championship game against Oakland, Tuesday night.

The Golden Eagles finished the season with a 20-13 record.

[Jeff Brucculeri is the coauthor of “Powerful People Are Inspired by Powerful Athletes,” available at www.tunedintosuccess.com. Contact; jeffb@tulsabeacon.com.]

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 and is filed under Sports.