Auburn Hills, MI — With his fourth-straight game with a scoring output over 30 against the Mastadons, guard Reggie Hamilton led the Golden Grizzlies to a 93-82 win over IPFW Saturday afternoon in the O’rena.

Hamilton, who scored 31 in this matchup, said that he approaches IPFW just like any other team.

“(I) just take advantage of every opportunity to put the ball in the basket and my teammates put in me a good position (to make shots),” Hamilton said. “Fortunately, I just have good performances against IPFW.”

While Hamilton finished with an efficient nine-of-17 FG, including shooting 55 percent from the arc, Reggie was also perfect from the free-throw line. He also has a league-best ten games of 30 points or more, which is second all-time in school history.

After struggling going one-for-seven in the first half, forward Drew Valentine had a statistically better second-half, shooting (four-of-five FG) 80 percent and finished with 19 points, six rebounds and one block.

“I just had to realize I’m a good player,” Valentine said. “Sometimes when you start off not making your shots or struggling a little bit, you have to start t0 do all the little things. I got away from that in the beginning (of the game). Once I stopped worrying about missing shots, and just start playing with the confidence that I’m used to, I was able to knock down open looks and be that all-around hustle guy.”

Guard Ryan Bass returned the line-up after missing the last game at Western Illinois due to an academic issue and contributed 13 points. He also went two-for-two from the three-point line.

“(Bass) did a great job, he handled the suspension like a man,” Head Coach Greg Kampe said. “He didn’t make excuses, accepted what he did was wrong and came back and really helped us win.”

Travis Bader finished with 18 points and now leads the country in three-point field goals attempted. Bader has reached double figures for the 19th time this season and tied a career-best of three steals.

The Grizzlies controlled the lead for most of the first half, but the Mastadons rallied back with a 11-6 run with under two to play to tie the game at 40. With three seconds left in the first half Hamilton hit a three pointer to send Oakland into halftime with a three point advantage.

“(In the first half there) wasn’t really quality basketball being played,” Kampe said. “But when push came to shove I thought we stepped up and played a really good last six minutes of the game.”

The second half opened with both the Grizzlies and Dons’ trading shots, allowing for six lead changes within the first six minutes. Shortly after, Oakland went on a 20-2 run that expanded the lead to as high as 17.

Oakland holds a 15-3 lead all-time against IPFW.

With the looming last game of the season on the horizon, Hamilton admits its going to be tough.

“It’s going to be a hard day for me but I’m going to try go in there and get a big win,” Hamilton said. “I appreciate everything the Grizzly family has done, they brought me in with open arms and it’s been a good three years here. I’m thankful for the opportunity that I’ve received.”

Kampe, who is now in his 28th season as head coach, says senior night is the most difficult game on the schedule.

“It’s always the worst night of the year for me,” he said. “We’ve said goodbye to a lot of good players at Oakland University but we’ve also said goodbye to a lot of really good people. There are some people who haven’t had the storied career like a Reggie Hamilton, its tough when you’re with each other and part of a family to see that last night.”

The Grizzlies return to the O’rena for the final time this season on Wednesday, Feb. 15 against Southern Utah at 7 p.m.

“There will be a lot of emotions in that game,” Kampe said. “Everybody wants to know why I’m so upset about this BracketBusters game. The big part of that is that they’ve taken our Saturday, big crowd game away and put it on a Wednesday night. It’s not fair to Reggie (Hamilton) and Laval Lucas-Perry and they deserve better.”

 

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