It was beginning to look like déjà vu. A few days after Oakland was down 44-20 on the road at Wright State, the Golden Grizzlies found themselves trailing 40-27 less than 14 minutes into the game at Youngstown State.
The Penguins were getting where they wanted — Oakland looked beat up and slow. The Golden Grizzlies finally came alive for the first time since the Christmas holiday. A 13-3 run to close the half brought the deficit to three, and Oakland had new life.
Throughout the second half, the score never got outside of a two-possession difference. Both teams continued to score at a high clip after each hitting 40 points in the first half.
“Like you say Neal [Oakland radio voice], just put up a tie score with two minutes left to play in this league man,” head coach Greg Kampe said in a postgame interview.
Oakland’s biggest lead came when it went ahead 74-68 with under seven minutes to play. Youngstown State used its two leading scorers in Cris Carroll and Bryson Dawkins to quickly tie it up at 74, and then a dunk by Dawkins gave the lead back to the Penguins. After the 74-74 tie, the final six minutes saw no lead greater than two points for either team in the final six minutes.
The Golden Grizzlies went to their big three on the day to close in the scoring column. After Oakland trailed 80-78, Brett White II hit a three to take the lead with under a minute and a half to play, and Oakland took the lead by the slimmest of margins. Then, after a stop, Isaac Garrett hit two free throws.
Youngstown State’s Jason Nelson, who was a problem all night, scored and was fouled to tie the game at 83 with 43 seconds to play. After an Oakland timeout, the preseason player of the year in the conference had a moment, converting on a putback with 14 seconds left to take the final 85-83 lead.
“Our star [Buru] came up huge. He was so big defensively, he was having a rough free throw shooting night and made two huge ones to tie it, and Brett got a hand on that last rebound, Buru came down with it and muscled his way to the basket,” Kampe said. “When your star makes plays down the stretch, you are going to win basketball games.”
Oakland got the final stop by forcing an off-balance three from the Penguins.
“We were tired, we were beat up, we were sick, and we really had every excuse in the world to lose this game,” Kampe said. “They kicked our butt on the glass, but boy we played a really good offensive game.”
Isaac Garrett was the main man on offense for the Golden Grizzlies. He posted an Oakland career high 27 points and a personal career best in rebounds with 14.
“Isaac was a man tonight. We got him the ball which is something we haven’t been able to do in a few games. That’s one of the best games you’ll see someone play in the league this year,” Kampe said.
Brett White II got his first career start at Oakland and delivered bigtime. As Ziare Wells was dealing with the flu in limited minutes, White II made five threes en route to a Division I career high 22 points. He also added six rebounds.
Naivalurua went 5-of-6 from the floor and was the only other Golden Grizzly in double figures with 14 points.
Brody Robinson had eight points and seven assists, while Khoi Thrumon played his best game in an Oakland uniform. He had season highs in points with five, four assists and 24 minutes to go along with two steals. Warren Marshall IV added a three-pointer late in the second half in his return from a bout with the flu.
The win brought Oakland to 3-1 in Horizon League play, which is good for a first-place tie with Wright State, Detroit Mercy and Milwaukee. Overall, Oakland is 7-8.
Next up is a return home, where the defending Horizon League champions will be in town. Robert Morris is 10-5 on the year, and 2-2 in conference play.
The Colonials are led by IU Indy transfer DeSean Goode, who scores 14.6 points per game and grabs 9.4 rebounds per game. Ryan Prather Jr., the lone returning contributor from the team a year ago that gave No. 2 seed Alabama all it could handle in the NCAA Tournament, is scoring over 13 points a contest. Transfer Nikolas Chitikoudis is the other double-digit scorer at 12 points per game, to go along with seven rebounds. Andy Toole is in year 16 as the Robert Morris head coach. The Colonials play at Detroit Mercy on Friday night.
The tilt between Oakland and Robert Morris will tip off on Sunday at 3 p.m. Eastern Time and will be broadcast on ESPN+.
Subscribe to our emails, and get our latest posts in your inbox, plus a weekly digest of everything we've published!
