The Oakland University men’s basketball team (7-13, 2-3 Horizon) fell to Cleveland State (11-8, 3-2) on the road Thursday night, 86-76, in an early Horizon League showdown that came down to the wire.

OU took a 67-59 lead with an and-one basket by Cory Petros with 7:49 to go in the game but it was all Cleveland State after that.

After stellar comebacks against Valparaiso and Detroit this month, the magic was not there for the Golden Grizzlies this time.

Petros had another quality game, scoring 15 points and grabbing 13 rebounds.

Tommie McCune had arguably his best performance of the season in just 28 minutes, scoring 23 points and eight rebounds, both career highs.

Freshman guard Kahlil Felder put in another solid performance notching 10 points and 6 assists.

Grizzly senior guards Travis Bader and Duke Mondy both struggled, shooting just 4-19 on field goals and scoring only 14 points between them.

Bader’s lone basket was a 3-pointer, bringing him within 15 3-point buckets to take the all-time NCAA record from former Duke star, J.J. Redick.

Senior forward Joey Asbury started the game for Oakland but only played 3 minutes.

In a game that featured 10 ties and 13 different lead changes, OU only turned the ball over twice, a season-low.

Oakland and Cleveland State tied in rebounds at 33 and assists at 14.

The telling stat, however, was that Oakland only shot 40% from the floor, missing several uncontested threes near the end of the game.

The Vikings shot 61.5% at home, including 50% on threes.  

Guard Trey Lewis led the charge for Cleveland State with 29 points on 9-of-14 shooting and four rebounds. Fellow guard Bryn Forbes added 15 points on the night.

Oakland plays at Green Bay next Wednesday, Jan. 22 at 8 pm.

OU returns home on Saturday, Jan. 25 for the homecoming game against University of Illinois at Chicago at 2 p.m.