The words of head coach Greg Kampe are often genuine and poignant. In his postgame interview, one quote in particular told the story of the game between Oakland and Wright State on Sunday.
“We were down 29 points in the first half, on national TV, in our house,” Kampe said.
In front of a raucous crowd and student section, Oakland found themselves down 41-14 less than 15 minutes into the game. It was undoubtedly the worst half of the season, and maybe in quite some time.
“One of the referees today has done a lot of games at Oakland,” Kampe said. “I looked at him at halftime and said ‘Is this the worst half of basketball you have ever refereed for a Greg Kampe team? He looked at me and said, ‘My God, I can’t believe this.’ Well, if the referee feels that way, what are those people in the stands thinking that was.”
Wright State’s biggest lead came with just over 13 minutes to play, as the score was at 71-42. From there, Oakland finally snapped out of whatever was holding them down.
The Golden Grizzlies stormed back, forcing a Wright State timeout with 4:50 to go after going on a 26-7 run to cut the lead to ten. They trimmed it even further to 86-79 with 1:11 to go. But the mountain was too tall to climb, and Wright State took over possession of first place in the Horizon League with a 94-84 win.
“To be honest, I don’t have an answer for why we started so slow today, or why we have started that slow in both games against them,” Tuburu Naivalurua said. “All I can say is it’s disappointing that we had to fight back from 30 points down. Even with how bad it is though; it is one game in January. There is still so much season left.”
Brody Robinson added on to that with an outlook on the future.
“We need to stay together. We have a huge week ahead of us, two really big games. Green Bay won again today, and you know the history between Milwaukee and Oakland. Like Buru said it’s a loss in January, but it is the way we lost today that can’t happen again,” Robinson said.
Robinson was the catalyst for the late surge of Oakland momentum. He finished the game with 35 points, four steals, three rebounds and three assists while playing all 40 minutes of game action. Naivalurua added 15 points and six boards, while Brett White II was the only other double-digit scorer with 11.
Oakland had three starters play their worst games, maybe all year. Isaac Garrett was in massive foul trouble, and only mustered up six points. Michael Houge and Ziare Wells each scored a basket or two during the final run, but were both held scoreless for the first 28+ minutes of the game. The trio that all came in averaging more than 10 points a game individually, scored 13 combined.
The loss was a gut punch, not just because it was in front of a great crowd, but because Oakland is now looking up in the standings for the first time all year. At 5-2, the Golden Grizzlies have also lost out on the head-to-head tiebreaker with the 6-1 Raiders.
The Golden Grizzlies have no time to pout, however, as a trip to Wisconsin awaits. The trip starts at Milwaukee on Thursday, where the preseason pick to win the league is sitting at 4-3 in the early going.
The Panthers lost their leading scorer Seth Hubbard for the season to injury, and played their last game without their starting frontcourt of Faizon Fields and Danilo Jovanovich. Amar Augillard and Josh Dixon are high-powered guards who both average double figures, making the Panthers capable even if the big guys don’t suit up.
Tipoff in Milwaukee is slated for 7 p.m. Eastern Time and has been selected as a nationally televised game on ESPNU.
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