It was a game of two halves as the Oakland University women’s basketball team suffered their worst home loss of the season, dropping 61-51 against the South Dakota State Jackrabbits.

The Golden Grizzlies (10-10, 6-5 Summit League) came into Monday night’s game having won five of their last six games, all coming within the month of January. Coupled with the team’s impressive 7-2 record inside the O’rena, Oakland looked to hand the Jackrabbits only their second conference loss of the season.

Meanwhile, South Dakota State (15-7, 10-1 Summit League) came into the game having won five straight, and holding the top spot in the Summit League conference.

This set up for a marquee matchup inside the O’rena, a rematch of last year’s Summit League Championship game.

The game had a title-game feel early with both teams trading baskets immediately following tip-off. Redshirt freshman guard Amy Carlton surprisingly stepped up to lead the Grizzlies’ initial charge, scoring the first five points of the game. Oakland head coach Beckie Francis was very pleased with Carlton’s play, highlighting her will on the court.

“What freshman takes the starting spot and scores the first five points in this kind of game,” Francis said, “She is a hustle player, always getting her nose in there, she really is my replacement for Zakiya. She is my Rudy story, she’s a walk on, and the fact that she is starting like this and producing is incredible.”

Zakiya Minifee was lost for the season after a lower leg injury in the IUPUI game in early January. Minifee was previously the team’s leading rebounder and one of the team’s top scorers.

While Carlton helped to set the tone early, it was senior center Brittany Carnago who stole the spotlight in the first half – and rightfully so. Carnago notched her 260th block of her career early in the game, setting a new school record. The previous record had been held by Brenda McLean, and had stood since 1985.

At the post-game press conference, Carnago was very humbled by the record, but wished that it had come in a victory.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Carnago said, “It’s quite the honor to be up there with such excellent players”

With walk-ons stepping up and records being broken, Oakland was able to ride a 7-0 run into halftime and take a 29-23 lead into the locker room. The run was capped by a buzzer beater lay up by Carnago.

While Oakland carried the momentum into halftime, the Golden Grizzlies came out flat in the second half. Out of the break the Jackrabbits reeled off a 12-2 run to retake the lead for good, attacking the Grizzlies with a barrage of three pointers. SDSU went an impressive 7-12 from behind the arc in the second half, while Oakland matched with a dreadful 0-5 from the same distance.

Star junior forward Bethany Watterwoth summed it up bluntly.

“I thought what really hurt us was our defense,” Watterworth said, “And we went cold there for a little while, and we didn’t hit a shot which hurt us.”

That “cold streak” was OU failing to register a successful field goal for the first nine minutes of the second half.

Finally, freshman forward Shelby Herrington hit a jumper to stop the bleeding – but it was too little too late. SDSU took control of the game, shooting 46.7% in the second stanza, to Oakland’s 28.0% during that same time frame.

“Some games you shoot like this and some games you don’t,” Francis said. “It’s a credit to South Dakota State’s defense. We’re the top defensive teams in the league and we showed it in the first half and they showed it in the second half, it was like a swap.  It’s just a matter of getting two halves together and playing good defense the whole 40 minutes.”

Oakland gave up a season high 12 three-pointers to the Jackrabbits, who relied on shots from the outside to seal the victory.

Watterworth led the Grizzlies’ attack with a game-high 25 points to go along with seven rebounds, which also tied for the game-high in that category.  Senior guard Sharise Calhoun was the only other Grizzly in double-figures, notching 11 points. Carnago chipped in seven.

South Dakota State sported a balanced attack with Jill Young having 15, Rachel Walters adding a career-high 12 off the bench and Ashley Eide contributing 10.

Oakland was outrebounded by the Jackrabbits 38-29, but Oakland committed only nine turnovers to South Dakota State’s 12.

Coach Francis was obviously upset with the result, but was able to find some positives for the team going forward.

“There were some positives in this game, and I really want to give some credit to my team,” Francis said, “We kept them off the free throw line, this is the top free-throw attacking team in the conference, and they only went to the line three times. I thought that the rebounding and Walters in the second half killed us””

“We’ve done really well against (the top teams in the conference)” Francis said, “We have just a little bit more work to do and we’re focusing on peaking in March.”

The Golden Grizzlies begin a two game roadtrip on Saturday. Oakland will take on Western Illinois on Saturday at 5:30 and then IUPUI on Feb. 6.