An offensive battle took place in Calihan Hall Saturday afternoon as the Oakland men’s basketball team (11-7, 3-2) defeated rival University of Detroit Mercy (9-7, 3-2) 86-82 in the first Metro Series match-up on the court this season.

“We spent this last week rebooting, getting back to what our values are. We’ve got to score through the post and we did that tonight,” head coach Greg Kampe said after the game.

“I thought tonight we really ran offense. We executed, we got the ball inside, we didn’t shoot great but the right guys touched the ball in the right spots.”

Kay Felder led the way again for the Golden Grizzlies with 22 points, six rebounds and nine assists. Jalen Hayes followed Felder’s efforts and recorded his seventh double-double of the season with 19 points and 11 boards on 9-for-13 shooting.

“We just knew we had to get a win in Calihan and our effort was there, especially on defense,” Felder said.

“Tonight we just took care of business.”

After winning the tip and scoring on its first possession, Detroit held the lead throughout the first half until Felder scored with 36 seconds remaining to give Oakland its first lead of the night.

Jarod Williams split a pair of free throws for the Titans, but Sherron Dorsey-Walker hit a three at the buzzer and put Oakland up 43-40 at the half. The score remained tight through the beginning of the second half until Oakland opened up a 12-0 run to give the Golden Grizzlies an 11-point lead, its largest of the game, with 11:25 to play.

Back-to-back field goals by Detroit’s Paris Bass and Josh McFolley cut Oakland’s lead to two with 28 seconds to go. Dorsey-Walker sealed the game with 18 seconds to play, knocking down two free throws for the Golden Grizzlies. He finished with 14 points and four rebounds.

With the win, Oakland leads the Metro Series, the branded rivalry between the two schools, 9-1 and is 4-1 against the Titans since joining the Horizon League.

The teams will meet again on Feb. 26 at the O’rena to play the last game of each team’s season before the Horizon League tournament on March 5.

Oakland will return home to face the newest member of the Horizon League, Northern Kentucky, for the first time this season on Jan. 19 at 7 p.m.