Shot out of the sky

By SAMANTHA FRANZ

Sports Editor

ROCHESTER — After falling to Oral Roberts University in the conference championship game last March, Oakland University was looking for redemption Saturday when the Golden Eagles (10-5 overall, 5-0 Summit League) dropped by the O’Rena for the teams’ first matchup this season.  


But the Golden Grizzlies (9-8 overall, 4-2 Summit League) had too many factors working against them and they fell in the game’s final minutes, 66-60. 


“That’s a championship caliber team,” head coach Greg Kampe said. “They made plays down the stretch and we didn’t. They jumped on every opportunity they had, which is what you have to do to win on the road.”


Coming into the game, sophomore Johnathon Jones and junior Derick Nelson knew they would have a big role in this rivalry game. 


With junior Erik Kangas recovering from re-injuring his collarbone, freshman Tim Williams playing on a sore ankle and senior Brandon Cassise serving an indefinite suspension for violating team policy, Nelson and Jones had to take the reins in the backcourt without much backup. 


“It’s basketball, things happen and you have to keep going on with your season,” Nelson said. “It means JJ and I will have to step up and play more minutes. It’s different without them out there, but we just got to get to it and deal with it.”


The game reached its seventh tie with a score of 24-24 with 1:18 remaining before a five-point Oral Roberts swing, courtesy of Robert Jarvis and Adam Liberty, gave the Golden Eagles a 29-24 advantage. 


But OU senior center Pat McCloskey hit a shot at the buzzer and Oakland ended the first 20 minutes with a three-point deficit to work off in the second half, 29-26. 


While Oakland kept the second half close, they struggled to maintain a lead, as their defense wasn’t strong enough to hold off the surging Golden Eagles, who shot 64 percent in the second half, compared to Oakland’s 43 percent.  


“Our defense has been the constant with us,” Oral Roberts head coach Scott Sutton said. “Sometimes we have a hard time scoring. We knew that if we were going to beat Oakland, we had to defend because we couldn’t get in a shootout with them.”


Jarvis, in particular, was a thorn in Oakland’s side in his sixth man role, as he hit 4 of 5 3-pointers and scored 20 points in the contest.  


The Golden Eagles sealed their second half lead for good with more than 10 minutes remaining in the game when Oral Roberts went on a 6-0 run to bring the score to a 45-39. 


The Golden Grizzlies, however, put up a respectable push for the lead as the half wore on and cut ORU’s lead to one point with about three minutes to go, after Jones nailed a pair of free throws to bring the score to 55-54. 


But, in the end, Oral Roberts had more gas in the tank and Jarvis knocked down a 3-pointer, after recovering from a near steal by McCloskey, to push the lead to the game’s final score of 66-60. 


The loss ended a three-game winning streak for the Golden Grizzlies.  


Jones and Nelson both stepped up for OU and just missed recording double-doubles. Nelson recorded 20 points for the second game in a row and nine rebounds, while Jones netted 15 points and nine assists.

 

The Golden Grizzlies will resume action Saturday, Jan. 19 with a trip to IPFW in Fort Wayne, Ind. for a 4 p.m. tip-off. 


The Mastodons are 6-11 overall and 3-3 in Summit League play, having recently snapped a four-game losing streak with a decisive 71-52 victory over Centenary Saturday.Â