Entering Thursday, the Golden Grizzlies had a chance to pull even with a Youngstown State team that was ahead of them in the standings.
After Thursday night, the climb upward looks steep.
Oakland fell 84-75 at the hands of the Penguins inside the O’rena. The highlight of the night was at halftime, when Kay Felder had his banner raised among the other Golden Grizzly greats.
“Keith Benson was the most dominant, Kendrick Nunn is probably our best pro, but Kay Felder was the most dynamic player to come through here,” Greg Kampe said in his postgame press conference.
“It’s very disappointing to play like we did on a night like this.”
The early portion of the game was played fairly even, with the first eight plus minutes being played to a 13-11 score. Oakland then went into a terrible stretch, and found themselves down 12 soon after. 38-32 was the halftime score.
The second half saw an early burst of Oakland energy, but there were too many mistakes to complete the comeback.
Oakland fell to 7-7 in league play, and now sit in sixth place in the Horizon League. The climb to the top four, (fifth place also gets a first round bye) which secures a by and a home quarter final game now looks tough.
“There isn’t a lot of season left,” Kampe said. “That is why this game was so important, because we are running out of time.”
Allen Mukeba was once again very good. His 18 points, 10 rebounds and three assists secured his fourth double double in conference play. He shot 7-11 from the floor all in 27 minutes. Buru Naivalurua was right behind with 17 points and seven boards. They have the ability to keep Oakland in any league game they play, but for a special late season run to happen, they will need help.
Kampe harped on the point guard play in the postgame. DQ Cole and Jaylen Jones each struggled in this one. They were a combined 3-14 from the floor, and 1-9 from three. They also combined for seven assists and six turnovers. That spot needs to be better than they were in this one, and they have shown to be capable of that.
One guard who continues to emerge is the freshman walk on Nassim Mashhour. He had 10 points on 2-4 from three. He has played in the 20+ minutes four times this year, and all four occurrences have come in the last four games. He is averaging 10.25 points and shooting 10-17 from three (58.8%) in those games. He has turned himself into a major factor, and Golden Grizzly fans should expect to see him more going forward.
A trip to IU-Indy is next on the docket, and with Detroit Mercy at home after that, these two games have turned into must wins for this group if they want to put themselves into position to fight for those top spots. Fourth place is now 10-5, while Milwaukee sits in fifth place at 9-5.
Wednesday night is when the week starts at IU-Indy. That game will start at 6:30 Eastern Time on ESPN+.
