Oakland Falls 87-83 After Giving UCF Scare in Orlando

The first hurdle of pulling an upset in a high major arena is to not be intimidated. If you are, the game is often lost before it even starts.

After opening the season in the arenas of three of the current top six teams in the country, Oakland won that first battle. However, they came up just short in the war.

The Golden Grizzlies fell 87-83 in their second game of the year against the Big 12, and dropped to 1-4 on the season.

“Dang it,” Greg Kampe said to Neal Ruhl in his postgame video, through a laugh. “We have to learn to win games in a place like this — you have to be better than perfect.”

The game started a bit slow. Without much action early, the score was only 10-4 UCF over seven minutes into the game, before Brett White made back-to-back threes to tie it at 10-10. From there until halftime, Oakland trailed, with the Knights finding success with full court pressure for a short stint towards the close of the first 20 minutes.

After a halftime score of 44-40 UCF, the game quickly began to get away from the Golden Grizzlies. UCF began the half scoring 26 of the first 37 points, and took a 70-55 lead with just over 11 minutes to play.

That’s when Oakland flipped a switch.

Oakland used a variety of players to rattle off 15 straight points, with a Brody Robinson and-one tying the game at 70-all.

The score went back and forth down the stretch, with the teams trading the lead. The situation ended up with UCF up one with the ball, and with Oakland in an all-out blitz, a pass was stolen by Nassim Mashhour, but he landed out of bounds. UCF made their clutch free throws, and won the game.

“He landed out of bounds,” Kampe also said through a smile and a chuckle.

Oakland’s leading score was Isaac Garrett, who had a massive contingent of friends and family sitting behind the Oakland bench. He continued his tear through the beginning of the season and had 23 points and seven rebounds. Through four games, it’s hard not to say he has been Oakland’s best player.

While Garrett led the way scoring wise, the story of the game for Oakland was Brett White II. He broke out for 21 points, making 6-of-11 from deep. He added two blocks and four rebounds as well. His shooting ability is going to be a big story for the Golden Grizzlies all season long.

Also reaching the 20-point total was Brody Robinson. He made 3-of-4 from three and controlled the game almost the whole time for Oakland. Robinson has performed very well through four games.

The other Oakland player in double figures was Buru Naivalurua, who posted 11 points, six boards and five assists while seemingly not playing his best game.

For the first time this season, Oakland will now turn their attention to a fellow Division 1 mid-major, arriving in the form of Eastern Michigan. The Eagles are 2-2 on the season with their last two games coming against Horizon League opponents. After a 90-83 loss at home to IU Indy, Eastern Michigan will be coming off of a 72-62 win at Detroit Mercy. This game will take place on Friday, November 21st at 6:30pm Eastern Time, and will be broadcast on ESPN+.