It is said the third time is the charm.

The Oakland University men’s basketball team hopes those words ring true next Sunday.

On Saturday night, the Golden Grizzlies fell to Fort Wayne, 74-72 in the regular season finale. The loss marked the first time that the Mastadons had ever swept the season series with the Golden Grizzlies, having beaten OU in Fort Wayne less than two weeks ago.

Now, OU (16-15, 10-6 Summit) will prepare to face its closest rival in the Summit League once again, as the teams are slated to clash in the opening round of the conference tournament in Sioux Falls next weekend. The Grizzlies finished fourth overall in the Summit, and IPFW (15-16, 7-9 Summit) clinched the fifth seed, setting up the third game between the two foes in less than three weeks.

“It’s hard to say that we are a better team right now, especially since they’ve beaten us twice in the last 10 days,” Oakland head coach Greg Kampe said. “They outplayed us down there (in Fort Wayne), and they outplayed us again. We have a week to get better, and we’re going to need it if we don’t want it to happen a third time.”

Fort Wayne proved to be the only blemishes to the final two months of Oakland’s schedule, as the Black and Gold finished the regular season 8-2 over their last 10 games. After the game, Kampe pointed to his squad’s effort level for those two losses.

“We came out flat in the first half when we played them there, and tonight we didn’t have any intensity in the second half,” Kampe said. “We didn’t get stops, we didn’t make shots, and we made terrible decisions down the stretch. Give them all the credit, they just outplayed us.”

After the final home game of his career, senior forward Drew Valentine agreed with his coach’s assessment.

“I don’t think it is anything they (Fort Wayne) are doing, it really is on us,” Valentine said. “The first game we didn’t have any energy and intensity and tonight in the second half we didn’t have any either. I blame that on myself, I’m a leader on this team, a senior on senior night.”

Despite the crowd of over 3,000 raucous fans to send off Valentine and fellow senior Jordan Howenstine, Oakland could not close out the game in that crucial second half period.

After finishing the first half on an 8-1 run to take a 43-38 lead in to the locker room, OU maintained their lead until midway through the second stanza.

IPFW utilized a 9-2 run to take their first lead of the second half, 60-57, at the 9:27 mark. From then on, Oakland was able to tie the game on several occasions, but they could never retake the advantage from the Mastadons.

Junior guard Travis Bader hit his first and only 3-pointer with just over two minutes remaining to tie the game at 72. With the three, Bader moved into first place in school history with 349 successful shots beyond the arc. However, the sharpshooter was only 1-11 from beyond the arc, scoring a season low 12 points in conference play.

“You gotta win without Bader, you can’t expect the kid to be great every night,” Kampe said.

The Grizzlies could not quite manage to do that, as IPFW’s Frank Gaines hit a midrange jumper with 1:10 left on the clock. The basket proved to be the game-winner as neither team scored over the last seventy seconds of chaos.

Needing to foul in order to prolong the game, Oakland sent Fort Wayne to the line three straight times for one-and-one opportunities.

Each time the Mastadons missed, but Oakland could not convert on the final possession. Junior guard Duke Mondy had a potential game winning layup roll off the rim, and a last second heave by Bader sailed wide of the basket.

“We had Bader wide open (on the next to last possession), instead we put our head down and drove it instead of running the play,” Kampe said. “You’ve got to execute what your coach wants. At times, we’ve done that during the year and we did that tonight. It’s very upsetting.”

Senior forward Drew Valentine led the OU attack with 15 points and eight rebounds. Sophomore center Corey Petros chipped in 14 points and nine rebounds. Mondy scored 11.

While the game was disappointing for Kampe, his team, and the packed O’rena crowd, it will be a night that one particular Golden Grizzly will never forget.

Jordan Howenstine, a walk-on guard, rarely gets to see the floor during game action. He runs the scout team in practice, but Howenstine only had played in 12 games before Saturday. Being senior night, Kampe started Howenstine for the first and only time of his career.

Howenstine, a high school teammate and best friend of fellow senior Valentine, only expected to hear his name announced and then run up and down the court once before being subbed out. However, Kampe left him in for five minutes, where Howenstine was able to score his first point of the season off of a free throw and collect one rebound.

“It was amazing, definitely one of the best moments of my life,” Howenstine said. “I didn’t expect the extended minutes at all, but just for him to keep me in there was an honor and a nice gesture of respect.”

While he was disappointed that senior night did not go as he would have hoped, Valentine was already looking ahead to the next battle with Fort Wayne. The game, which Valentine described would be “another dogfight” will be March 10 at 7 p.m., shown on Fox College Sports and be heard on WDFN 1130AM.

“We know what we have to do,” Valentine said. “We’ve got to go to Sioux Falls and earn a spot in the tournament. That’s always our goal, and we’re good enough to do it.”

Contact Timothy Pontzer via email at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @timothy_pontzer