“We just sucked”
That was how Buru Naivalurua summed up the Golden Grizzlies performance in a 79-71 loss to Robert Morris over the weekend. The loss, at home, dropped Oakland to 2-3 in the league, putting pressure on the upcoming schedule to not fall too far behind.
“You have to win at home. That’s why this loss put us behind today,” Greg Kampe said.
Oakland came out like they knew the importance of winning at home. The Golden Grizzlies held a 39-32 lead at halftime and extended the lead to nine on the first possession of the second half, getting Buru a dunk. The offense went into quite a lull from there.
After Oakland took a 49-41 lead on a Buru and one, they then scored three points in the next seven plus minutes. The Golden Grizzlies trailed the rest of the way.
While Buru was critical of the team’s performance, he led the way in this one. He posted a double double with 18 points and 10 rebounds, and his breakout in the league this year continues.
Behind Naivalurua, Allen Mukeba scored 13 points. The final stretch of the game was particularly tough on the offense, and part of that could be attributed with Mukeba missing the closing stretch after hurting his lower leg. He siad postgame it will not be a problem moving forward.
Another Golden Grizzly who was limited was DQ Cole, and Kampe said postgame he was doubtful to play with the flu. Cole only played 17 minutes, and it was all in short stretches. He ended the game with five points.
Oaklands struggles to score was once again partly attributed to their three-point performance. An 8-33 shooting display was too much to overcome. Malcolm Christie had 11 points but has shown he can be better than the 3-14 he put up from three. DQ was 1-5, Jayson Woodrich was 1-3, Cooper Craggs was 0-2 and Isaiah Jones was 1-3. Jones was quite good doing the dirty work again however, grabbing six rebounds and cleaning up with seven points.
One player who did make a few threes was Jaylen Jones. He put up 10 points, six rebounds and four assists. Jaylen looks like a player who will continue to rise now that the schedule is all league opponents.
This loss certainly hurts, and it looks worse now that the potential historically hardest trip in the league awaits. Oakland will need to grind their way to some winning basketball, at Wright State and Northern Kentucky before the schedule offers some breathing room again.
It will be Wright State first on Thursday night at 7pm Eastern Time on ESPN+, while the Northern Kentucky game will be Saturday night at 6pm Eastern Time, also on ESPN+.
