“We don’t lose to Detroit. And we don’t lose on senior day.”
If you hang around the Oakland program long enough, you will hear Greg Kampe say those words eventually.
A few weeks ago, Oakland needed some Orena magic to eek out an overtime win against the Titans, moving their record to 21-4 against Detroit Mercy since moving to the Horizon League. That magic was put to the test again, as league leader Cleveland State had come to town and taken a 34-21 first half lead.
Six threes from senior, and Cleveland State transfer Jayson Woodrich later, Oakland had survived another overtime win. The final score was 91-86.
Woodrich made his first three with Oakland trailing 34-22 with 6:44 left in the first half, and his other two in that half helped close the halftime deficit to 46-42.
He ended up scoring 20 points, including a three to put Oakland ahead in the last minute of regulation. The 20 points are his Oakland high, and his six threes are a career high.
The performance by the senior Woodrich was the highlight, but there were plenty of other Golden Grizzly heroes.
Allen Mukeba logged 22 points and 12 rebounds in a monster performance. He also added four assists. Mukeba provided the game tying bucket to send the game to overtime, and was a force for all 42 minutes he played. Between him, and Buru Naivalurua, Oakland is a tough matchup in a tournament setting.
Naivalurua was huge again as well, posting 16 points and seven rebounds. The reserve big from last season looks like a lock to be an all conference performer this year.
DQ Cole was another senior honored on senior day, and he delivered a very good performance. Cole had 19 points, eight assists and seven rebounds, borderline flirting with a triple double. On the court postgame, Greg Kampe called Cole “maybe the biggest shot maker in Oakland history.” Referencing the clutch threes in his career.
The other Oakland player in double figures was Isaiah Jones, who scored 11 points to go along with seven rebounds. Jones had a key putback with the game tied late in overtime that proved to be key in the win.
Oakland is now 21-4 when honoring a senior in the Orena (21-3 with fans in attendance).
As for what the win did for this Oakland team, it moved them to 13-16 overall, and 10-8 in league play. They sit two games behind Milwaukee and Purdue Fort Wayne for the last two byes.
While there is one scenario that sees Oakland sneaking into the fourth seed (bye and home game), it is unlikely. But Oakland does have a chance at the five (bye and road game at four seed) if it wins out this week, especially with one of the games coming against Milwaukee.
That Milwaukee game will take place Thursday at 8pm Eastern Time on ESPN+.
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