Northern Kentucky shot 52 percent from the floor, including 44 percent from three, dominating Oakland 90-73 Tuesday night at the O’rena.

“Pick up the energy,” head coach Greg Kampe yelled to his team two minutes into the contest.

The Golden Grizzlies (11-8, 3-3) did not seem to listen as they dropped their third Horizon League home game to the Norse (6-11, 2-4). Oakland was coming off of a hard fought 86-82 victory against Detroit on Saturday and was hoping to push its winning streak to three.

The team could not keep up with Northern Kentucky, however, who lead for over 35 minutes of the game.

Despite 20 points from Jalen Hayes and 25 from Kay Felder, continuing his streak of 20 points in every game this season, the Oakland offense seemed stagnate for most of the night.

“We ran terrible offense, we were taking shots we thought we could make and they just wouldn’t fall,” Felder said.

“That’s when we have to start throwing inside, and that’s what coach was preaching to us, but we kept shooting and that’s not what we were supposed to do.”

The Golden Grizzlies defense also struggled, giving up 90 points to a Northern Kentucky team that averages 66.4 points per game. Hayes said after the game that the team was not doing the little things defensively and that’s something they need to work on in practice.

“We were just terrible on defense tonight. We weren’t sticking to our principles and being lazy. It was a combination of a lot of little things,” Hayes said.

The slow start in league play is disappointing to Kampe, especially with how they started in non-league play.

“Obviously when the schedule came out and we saw that we saw that we were playing five of our first six [league] games at home, we really thought with the team that we had, that we had the chance to get off to a really fast start. We’ve screwed it up. To be 3-3 at this point with the talent that we have is not good,” Kampe said.

The team now has to play five of its next six games on the road, including three against teams that are ahead of them in the Horizon League standings. 

“The record is the record. We put ourselves in this position. We have to play our hearts out every game, and definitely at practices we have to make sure we are in tune with everything that the coaches are saying,” Felder said.

Oakland heads to Green Bay on Saturday with a 2 p.m. tip. The next home game will be on Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. against Wright State.

Both games will be on 1130 WDFN with the home game also being broadcasted on TV20 and ESPN3.