By Samantha Franz

ROCHESTER — Men’s basketball head coach Greg Kampe called it. 

Back in an Oct. 2007 interview with The Oakland Post, Kampe referred to first-year Summit League contender IPFW as a “dark horse” to win the conference tournament in March. 

While there are still two weeks remaining in the regular season, IPFW has gone from a team in limbo after their transition to Division I a few years ago to fourth place in the Summit League standings, sweeping their series with Oakland University this season with a 71-66 victory Saturday night. 

IPFW had previously only won one game on the road this season at Centenary College on Feb. 7. 

The Golden Grizzlies maintained a lead for most of the first half, shooting 54 percent from the field, compared to the Mastodons’ 35 percent. The home team carried a 32-26 lead going into the break. 

But the Mastodons took advantage of a 21-11 run in the second half’s first seven minutes and gained a 41-40 lead, their first since the opening minute of the first half. 

Oakland continued to put points on the board, but a 14-2 run by IPFW had the Grizzlies staring at an 11-point deficit with 7:18 to go. 

Freshman Will Hudson sparked the Golden Grizzlies with a dunk with 6:46 to go, which sparked a 14-4 rally that brought them within one point with 2:30 left in the game. 

Hudson, whose playing time has varied this season, clocked in 23 minutes off the bench and contributed nine points, seven rebounds, one block and a steal. 

But mistakes down the stretch and a game-sealing 3-pointer by IPFW’s Scott DeWitt with 47 ticks on the clock handed Oakland its second loss in three games, 71-66. 

“I thought we defended them very well for 30 of the 40 minutes,” Kampe said. “There was an eight- or 10-minute stretch, where they just went by us off the dribble and their post players scored at will on us inside. 

“We talk about how young we are, but that loss can’t be attributed to youth. We had a chance to make some plays down the stretch with some veterans and did not get it done.”

One of the veterans in question was junior Derick Nelson. While he scored a team-high 18 points, he only made five of his 12 free throws, including a missed one-and-one opportunity with 1:25 in the game that could have given Oakland a 63-62 lead. 

Despite his performance, Nelson became the seventh Golden Grizzly since joining Division I to score over 1,000 points in a career. His total now stands at 1,004. 

Nelson wasn’t the only Golden Grizzly to create a notch in the record books. Senior Patrick McCloskey set the all-time record for most games played in a career with 119 games and sophomore Johnathon Jones’ eight assists Saturday night brought him to the second place all-time in OU’s Division I contention for assists in a season with 155. Jones is also ranked 18th in the NCAA in assists, averaging 6.2 assists per game.  

The only other Golden Grizzly in double figures Saturday night was junior Erik Kangas, who netted 16 points, including four 3-pointers. 

IPFW senior David Carson, who played his first two college seasons as a Golden Grizzly, returned to the O’Rena for the first time since his transfer and scored 18 points, a career-high in Mastodon uniform. 

“He played a good game and made some good shots for them,” said Kampe of his former player. 

The Golden Grizzlies have their final two home games of the season this week, taking on IUPUI Thursday, Feb. 21 and concluding with Western Illinois University Saturday, Feb. 23. Thursday’s game will be televised on Fox Sports Detroit at 7:30 p.m.