What senior forward Trey Townsend did on Tuesday night in the Horizon League Championship Game will be talked about and written about for decades on the campus of Oakland University. During the program’s biggest game in at least three seasons, Townsend, the Horizon League Player of the Year, rose to the occasion.

In a game that went back and forth for all 40 minutes — neither team led by more than seven points — Townsend came up with big bucket after big bucket to help the Golden Grizzlies defeat the Milwaukee Panthers.

Twenty-seven of Townsend’s 38 points came in the second half. At one point, Townsend scored 16 consecutive points for the Golden Grizzlies. Jack Gohlke drilled a 3-pointer from the corner with 9:35 remaining in the game. No Golden Grizzly other than Townsend scored a point until Chris Conway made a layup with 1:23 left to go.

After the game, Greg Kampe took everyone inside one of the two timeouts that came near the eight-minute mark.

“About seven minutes to go in the game, they had made a run, maybe took the lead. We were up one, and they were going to the line with two free throws… And we got to the sideline and we’re standing there, and Jack Gohlke, who’s a really good player, right? Who could’ve been all-league, could be everything, and Blake Lampman, who is all-league and a really good player — the five of us were standing there — the guys on the court with me and a bunch of players… And Jack Gohlke grabs me and says, ‘This is Trey T’s moment! The ball goes to him!’

“Now, this guy wants to shoot the three, right? Then [Lampman] starts beating on people and saying, ‘It’s Trey T’s moment! The ball’s going to him!’ I didn’t have to coach. And the ball went to him the rest of the game. And this son of a — he delivered. He delivered.

“He delivered. And it was his moment. It’s why we won. Not that he delivered is why we won, it’s because Jack Gohlke and Blake Lampman said those things. That’s why we won.”

Townsend was simply unstoppable, and he wouldn’t be denied an NCAA Tournament berth. Lampman and DQ Cole made clutch layups late to keep Milwaukee at bay, but the focus was all on Townsend.

The conference player of the year recapped his monster 38-point, career-best performance.

“I just think it’s a credit to how talented the rest of the guys are out there with me,” Townsend said. “A lot of the game plan, you’d think, is to just double Chris [Conway] and I in the post, but with the way Blake [Lampman], Jack [Gohlke] and DQ [Cole] have been playing, you can’t really just rely on that because Chris is one of the most talented players that I’ve ever played with at his size, and to be able to do what he can do, it’s hard to just pick and choose who you want to double. It just happened to be my night.

“My teammates just fed me the ball, and I was able to score. And if I wasn’t scoring, it would’ve been Chris. But having a guy like Chris down there with me, knowing, if I happen to miss, he’s gonna get a rebound and put it back or dunk it… it just makes me play with so much more confidence.”

Townsend will now lead the Golden Grizzlies into the NCAA Tournament, where they will look to make noise in one of the best sporting events in the world.