ORU's Cinderella ride comes to heartbreaking close

It may have struck midnight for this Cinderella, but Oral Roberts coach Paul Mills will never forget the ride.

Max Abmas’ last-second three-pointer hit the front of the rim and bounced off at the buzzer as 3-seed Arkansas rallied to take a 72-70 win over the Golden Eagles on Saturday and clinch the program’s first trip to the the Elite Eight since 1995.

Davonte “Devo” Davis’ shot near the lane with 3.1 seconds left proved to be the winning score for the Razorbacks (25-6) and left Mills thinking about a technical foul he was issued early in the game.

“I am so proud of our players, who they are as men, for how they represented this university, for how they represented their families, for how they fought for one another,” Mills said. “I'm just so thankful to be around those guys.

“I've always felt that good players and good teams teach me more than I've ever had the opportunity to teach them, and that was obviously the case this year.

“The game, losing is totally my fault. I've gotten three technical fouls, including tonight's, in my entire career. To get a technical when you lose by two, it's a tough pill to swallow.”

Mills, whose team had won seven straight games and finished 18-11, made clear he did not get the technical for bad language.

“One, I don't curse, so I never cursed,” Mills said. “There was a play earlier where Justin Smith ran over one of our guys, Kevin Obanor, and lowered the shoulder, and it was a no call. So when they – when we got the same call, I just said, 'That's the same call. That's the same call.'

“And they said, 'Well, you can't yell.' In my mind, it's the only way that you can overcome the noise. You have to raise your voice. I just told him, 'It's the same call.' That was it. And they gave me a technical foul.”

Still Oral Roberts, which had knocked off 2-seed Ohio State and 7-seed Florida, had a final shot to advance.

The plan was to get the ball in the hands of Abmas, the nation’s leading scorer who had a game-high 25 points on Saturday.

“Putting the ball in Max's hands and allow him to make a decision,” Mills said of his strategy. "We gave him a pass option, and we gave him a dribble option. To his credit, he's super bright. He's just a terrific young man, picks up things really quickly.

"And he understood, had great court awareness, had great selection on the shot. Unfortunately, it didn't go in.”

Abmas thought it was a game-winner when he let it left his hand.

“There’s nothing that I would have done different,” Abmas said. “I guess shoot it up a little more, but when it left my hand it felt good. It ended up coming up short and we didn’t get the job done.

“The job was just to get to the Sweet 16. The job, of course, was to get to the national championship game and win it. We came up short, but all the stuff we accomplished this year, the guys will celebrate for the rest of our lives.”

Mills was asked how his team, the second 15 seed to reach the Sweet 16, will be remembered in 20 years.

“I don't know that answer," Mills said. “I'm proud, but you always think that you're capable of so much more. Not that I'm disappointed in this group at all, but you always think that a shot here, a shot there, if Coach Mills doesn't get a technical foul, how different this stuff could play out.

“I'll live with the technical foul for a minute, and that will help me down the road. It's hard to put in perspective just what's going to happen 10, 15, 20 years from now.”