After generating an 11-point lead late in the second half, the third-seeded Oakland University men’s basketball team allowed the six-seeded Southern Utah Thunderbirds to crawl back and win 84-82 in the quarterfinals of the Summit League Tournament.

The SUU victory marks the first time a No. 6 seed has defeated a No. 3 seed in the Summit League Tournament since 2007.

Even though the Thunderbirds had trouble stopping guard Reggie Hamilton, who finished with 31 points, he missed three consecutive free throws with under two minutes left that would have given the Grizzlies a potential two-possession lead.

This season, Hamilton has shot 88 percent from the free-throw line. Sunday night, he shot 62 percent.

“(Hamilton) is really down on himself right now because he’s a great player that wants to win,” head coach Greg Kampe said. “That will all be forgotten and we’ll remember all the great things that he did.”

Kampe thinks Hamilton doesn’t deserve the blame for the collapse during the game.

“Did it explode on him in the final minutes of the game? Yes, but we wouldn’t even been in that situation without him,” Kampe said. “I don’t fault or put any blame on anyone.”

Junior forward Drew Valentine finished with eight points and 11 rebounds and battled with SUU forward Jackson Stevenett, who had a team-high 26 points and nine rebounds.

“(Stevenett) is a good player,” Valentine said. “He was hitting a lot of tough shots and I was trying to make it tough on him. He made shots when they needed them the most.”

Guard Travis Bader had 24 points and is now tied for third place for the most three-pointers made in single-season Summit League History.

Guard Laval Lucas-Perry added eight points to an impressive performance from Grizzlies’ bench. He was also a perfect 3-of-3 from the field.

“I think Laval had an outstanding game,” Kampe said. “Our role players played great.”

After trailing by two at halftime, the second half opened with OU going on a 12-6 run, which included consecutive three-pointers from Valentine, Hamilton and Bader.

After the Oakland lead reached 11 at the 3:13 mark, a big steal and jumper from SUU’s Collie resulted in turning a double digit lead down to seven that led to the loss.

“This has kind of been the story of our season,” Kampe said. “We’ve struggled with doing the little things, pulling away and getting distance.”

Sunday’s loss snaps a five-game winning streak for the Grizzlies in the quarterfinals and a six-game winning streak in the Sioux Falls Arena.

“We lost four pros off that team from a year ago. You’re going to take a step back when you do that,” Kampe said. “We replaced them with talented young players. That doesn’t mean that this group can’t be better (in the future).”

Regardless of the outcome of the conference tournament, Kampe believes that it isn’t a true representation of the team and the season isn’t over yet.

“By our standards, third place is not acceptable but it still was a good season,” Kampe said. “It appears we will make the post season for the fourth year in the row.”

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Kevin Romanchik covers the men’s basketball team for OU. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @Kevin_ro