Nelson leads the way for men’s basketball on trip

By Dan Tallant

Contributing Reporter

The Golden Grizzlies men’s

basketball team (13-11 overall, 8-5 conference) took a road trip last weekend

down south to face conference rivals Oral Roberts (17-5, 12-0) and Centenary

(9-15, 3-9). Oakland split the two contests, beating up on Centenary, but

falling hard to Oral Roberts.

Game one of the road trip

took place Thursday against the first-place ORU Golden Eagles. Oakland shot a

miserable 30 percent from the field, managing to score only 53 points compared

to 60 for Oral Roberts.

Although cold shooting was

problematic for both teams, Oakland suffered the most, failing to convert on

its first 13 shots of the second half. The cold streak kept the Grizzlies from

scoring until just over seven minutes into the second half.

The game was close all the

way through until Oral Roberts’ Robert Jarvis sank six straight free throws to

close out Oakland.

OU Junior Derick Nelson

led the Grizzlies with 13 points. Junior Erik Kangas and sophomore Jonathon

Jones added 12 points each in the loss.

With the win, Oral Roberts

extended its home winning streak to 24 straight conference games. The Golden

Eagles also continued their dominance of the Summit League, extending their

conference record to 11-0.

Leaving empty-handed from

Tulsa, the Grizzlies looked to turn the road trip around with a win at

Centenary.

Oakland led by as many as

40 points in the contest and easily strutted off with a 97-61 victory against

Centenary College at the Golden Dome.

OU dominated the whole

contest on Saturday, with five Golden Grizzlies in double figures.

Nelson led the team again,

dropping a game-high 22 points. Assistance also came from Kangas who sank

4-of-8 from beyond-the-arc on his way to a 14-point performance. Other

double-digit scorers included freshmen Tim Williams, Will Hudson and Peter Bunn

who scored 13, 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Jones dished out 11

assists in the contest.

The 36-point victory by

the Grizzlies was the largest defeat that the Golden Dome has witnessed in its

existence.

“Any time you win by more

than 10 points in a league game, you’re happy,” head coach Greg Kampe said in a

press release. “We caught them at the right time and shots went down for us

early.”

Notes:

Golden Grizzly senior Brandon Cassise

did not make the trip due to personal reasons. Cassise is currently fourth on

the team in scoring, averaging 9.4 points per game. Cassise has missed four

games so far this season. There was no reason given for Cassise’s absence.

Assistant Sports Editor Rob Tate

contributed to this report.Â