The Oakland University men’s basketball team lost at home for the first time this season at the hands of the Wright State Raiders 78-74 on Friday night at the O’rena.

Both teams got off to fast starts offensively. Jalen Moore scored the first seven points for the Golden Grizzlies, and Jamal Cain added four of his own.

However, Wright State was picking apart Oakland’s zone. The game was tied at 11 at the first media timeout. 

Both teams would turn up the pressure on the defensive end, with Oakland forcing three straight Wright State turnovers. They would only turn that into two points though, with the score being tied at 13 at the second media timeout.

After the timeout, the Raiders went on a 12-2 run. This was aided by some careless Oakland turnovers. Very quickly, Wright State had opened up a 10-point lead, 25-15.

Then a momentum shift took root, with the Golden Grizzlies going on a 15-5 run of their own to tie things up at 30. Blake Lampman hit back-to-back 3-pointers to tie things up. 

Micah Parrish hit his third 3-pointer of the half to give the Golden Grizzlies their first lead with about two minutes left in the first half.

At the end of a first half that only lasted about 40 minutes of real time, Oakland led 35-34.

At halftime, former men’s basketball star Kendrick Nunn was honored and had his banner unveiled. 

The second half began similarly to the first — with the two teams trading baskets. Oakland led 45-43 at the under-16 timeout.

This is where Oakland started to get hot from beyond the arc. Lampman and Parrish hit back-to-back threes to give Oakland a 53-46 lead at under-12 timeout. 

The hot 3-point shooting continued, as Lampman hit another one in transition to force a Wright State timeout. Oakland’s zone had started to give the Raiders problems during this time, as well.

The Raiders soon found their footing again. They went on an 11-0 run to tie the game at 69 before Parrish untied it with another 3-pointer. The Golden Grizzlies led by just one, 72-71, at the final media timeout.

With under a minute to go, Cain went up for a dunk, but missed. Then, with 5.8 seconds to go, Wright State’s Grant Basile, who led all scorers with 26 points, gave the Raiders a two-point lead.

Cain would turn the ball over on the inbounds pass which led to a Wright State dunk. They won the game 78-74.

Head Coach Greg Kampe said he believes Cain let the missed dunk affect his psyche down the stretch.

“He was very loose with the ball with five seconds to go,” Kampe said. “We could still win the game — there were five and a half seconds to go, you should be able to get the ball to the timeout area in two seconds. And then when they got the putback too I think he thought ‘oh, I cost us the game’ or something like that. I mean, Jamal’s a great kid. He’s in that locker room right now in a corner by himself and he’s just devastated.”

Oakland was heavily outrebounded. Moore said that was why they lost, not because of Cain’s struggles at the end.

“I think we just outsmarted ourselves,” Moore said about the turnover on that last inbounds pass. “Me and [Cain] were just thinking too much, instead of just playing that last possession. But that didn’t cost us today. We got outrebounded 38-21, that’s a major point right there. We gotta be better and I believe in our guys. We’ll get there.”

Kampe said defensive rebounding continues to be his biggest concern with the team saying, “I mean it’s something that I talked about at the beginning of the year. And when things go bad, that’s usually part of why it goes bad.”

The Golden Grizzlies will hit the hardwood for their final two games of the regular season on Thursday, Feb. 24 against Purdue-Fort Wayne and on Saturday, Feb. 26 against Cleveland State, both at the O’rena.