ORU notebook: Watching with injured eye

BY JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer
Sunday, February 17, 2013
2/17/13 at 7:36 AM

Oral Roberts junior forward Shawn Glover missed a second consecutive game after undergoing a surgical procedure Wednesday to repair a torn eyelid and a torn tear duct.

Glover said he took a thumbnail to his left eye during a Feb. 9 loss at Stephen F. Austin.

"I'm very lucky that it didn't touch my eyeball," he said. "It could have damaged my vision or something like that."

Glover said he thought he was "done" when the eyelid got gashed.

"I didn't even open my eye," he said. "I was scared. I saw all the blood and I just panicked."

Glover's injured eye was constantly watering after the tear duct got ripped, according to ORU athletic trainer John Joslin. A stent was put in place to allow the tear duct to heal. The lacerated eyelid required stitches.

Glover, who wears contact lenses, said he got clearance Friday to use them.

When will ORU's third-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder be cleared to return to game duty?

Glover doesn't want to rush back too soon. He said his availability may be a game time decision when the Golden Eagles play a Tuesday home game against Central Arkansas, but he intends to play in a Feb. 23 ESPN BracketBusters game against Weber State.

What happened?: Things got chippy at the end of ORU's 56-51 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Islanders' Hameed Ali got called for a technical foul with 6.9 seconds left and alleged that he was hit in the mouth by ORU's Warren Niles.

Officials went to a monitor to check out the allegation and, after a lengthy delay, could not find video evidence to back up the claim. According to ORU coach Scott Sutton, Islanders coach Willis Wilson "jumped on the refs" and Sutton intervened to say the officials just looked at video for a long period of time and didn't see anything. Wilson didn't like that, according to Sutton. Tempers flared and both benches were assessed technical fouls.

Sutton said it was unfortunate that it happened, adding "There's no place for that in college basketball, especially between coaches."

Almost a record: Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Nate Maxey blocked five shots in the first half and finished with six blocks. That was one shy of the Mabee Center record for an ORU opponent, established by Tulsa's Bruce Vanley when he was en route to Sports Illustrated national player of the week honors in 1982.