The Oakland men’s basketball team defeated the Western Michigan University Broncos 77-60 on Monday, Nov. 14. This win ends the Golden Grizzlies’ four-game losing streak to the Broncos.

This is the fourth time Oakland has started a season 2-0 in 18 seasons of Division I play (2002-03, 2003-04, 2006-07).

“I knew we were going to beat Western Michigan, who we haven’t beaten in a long time,” said head coach Greg Kampe in the postgame press conference. “It’s a great win for us. It’s great to beat Western Michigan.”

Oakland had a rough start to the first half of the game and the Broncos took a five-point lead.

With less than 10 minutes left in the first half, the Golden Grizzlies started to come back from behind with points from Martez Walker and Jalen Hayes.

Oakland stepped up both offensively and defensively at the end of the first half, while the Broncos struggled. At halftime, the score was 30-26 Black and Gold.

At the beginning of the second half, forward Isaiah Brock changed the dynamics of the game.

In less than a minute, Brock stole a pass, assisted Walker in making a layup and made a layup himself, giving Oakland a 34-28 lead.

The Golden Grizzlies continuously made 3-pointers in the second half, and took a double-digit lead.

At the end of the game, junior co-captain Nick Daniels stood in the middle of the court waving his arms up and down, gesturing for the crowd to cheer louder as the Golden Grizzlies defeated the Broncos 77-60.

“We just had to stay playing defense and being aggressive as coach always says,” Walker said in the postgame conference. “That’s how we came through.”

Walker led the game with 21 points. He went 9-17 from the field and 3-8 from the three.

Hayes scored 18 points, going 7-12 from the field and 4-4 from the free-throw line. He got seven rebounds and played for 39 minutes, the longest he has played in a game this season.

Stevie Clark went 4-10 from the field, 3-6 from the 3-point and 4-4 from the free-throw line. He scored 15 points.

For Western Michigan, guard Thomas Wilder led the team with 13 points.

Brandon Johnson and Tucker Haymond each scored 12 points for the Broncos. Johnson was 6-8 from the field and got 5 rebounds. Haymond was 2-10 from the field goal and 8-10 from the free throw line.

Oakland’s next game will be against Goshen College at 7 p.m. ET on Friday, Nov. 18, on the Blacktop at the O’rena.