Grizzlies fail to overcome slow start
It was a rough outing for the Golden Grizzlies. Oakland missed their first nine shots of the game and shot 35 percent from the field on the night.
The Oakland University women’s basketball team (8-12, 3-4 Horizon) lost to Green Bay (11-7, 4-2) by a score of 74-58 on Thursday night at the O’rena.
The Golden Grizzlies dropped their second game in a row after getting off to a slow start from which they could not recover.
Grizzly senior forward Bethany Watterworth led all scorers with 28 points. Watterworth shot 8-of-16 from the field in addition to 12 free throws. Her ability to drive the ball into the paint allowed her to get to the line for 16 of the team’s 18 free throw attempts.
“I have confidence in my ability to get to the basket,” she said. “Our team has the ability to attack the basket as well, it’s just something we went away from tonight.”
Oakland started the game missing nine consecutive shots from the field. The scoring drought finally came to an end when Amy Carlton hit the first basket for OU at the 13:03 mark.
Despite poor shooting, Oakland kept the game close until late in the first half when Green Bay went on an 11-0 scoring run, eventually taking a 37-21 lead into the locker room at halftime.
“We can’t continue to dig ourselves this kind of hole to start the game and expect to win,” OU head coach Jeff Tungate said.
The Grizzlies kept pace with the Phoenix in the second half, matching Green Bay’s 37 points on 14-of-30 shooting. Oakland failed to take the lead at any point throughout the game, though, and never recovered from their 16-point halftime deficit.
“We have to play consistently on the offensive and defensive end for both halves and we didn’t do that tonight,” Watterworth said.
Green Bay has won the previous 15 Horizon League titles and in order to beat a team of that caliber, Tungate realizes his team needs to develop the right mentality.
“When you play a game against Green Bay, they’re at a point where they expect to win,” he said. “We’re at a point where we hope to win.
“We’ve got to get to the point where we expect to win if we’re going to take that next step in the program.”
Oakland will be on the road next Tuesday to take on the University of Illinois at Chicago (15-4, 4-2) before heading home for four straight games at the O’rena.
“Rebounding is going to be huge against UIC,” Tungate said. “They absolutely dominated us last game.”
When the two teams met on Jan. 18, the Grizzlies fell at home to the Flames by a score of 78-65. OU was outrebounded 57-36.
