SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Heading in to Saturday’s first round matchup with Southern Utah in the Summit League Tournament, Oakland University coach Greg Kampe was admittedly weary about the prospect of facing the Thunderbirds for a second time in eight days. His team struggled in the early-going last weekend and let Southern Utah linger around for longer than he’d have liked.

Oddly enough, Saturday night’s tournament opener seemed to follow an eerily similar script, with the Golden Grizzlies (23-9) coming away with an 82-66 win thanks mostly to a surge late in the first half.

Clinging to a narrow, 25-23, lead with 6:37 remaining before halftime, Oakland’s Reggie Hamilton ran off nine points in a row for the Grizzlies, which served as an announcement to the rest of the league that he had come to play in Sioux Falls.

Hamilton, who scored 21 of his team-high 23 points in the first half, had waited three years for a return trip to the Summit League Tournament. Before transferring to Oakland, Hamilton played on the big stage with UMKC as a freshman and had since waited for another chance in the conference tournament.

“(Tonight) it was Reggie Hamilton making great plays,” Kampe said, recalling Hamilton’s heroics late in the first half. “He got a steal, got an and-one, missed a free throw, but Will got the rebound and (Hamilton) made a 3-pointer. Then we get a (defensive) stop, and (Hamilton) goes down and buries another three.”

But as Kampe has said so many times this season, the stat lines mean nothing to Oakland’s players when their singular goal remains to win games.

“They’ve bought in to winning and this week with all of the (end of season) awards that came out, we’ve sold them on (not looking at that). We don’t talk about numbers or stats. If Oakland wins, then we played good. If Oakland loses, then we didn’t,” Kampe said.

“Reggie came to us (via transfer) with a reputation that maybe that (team mentality) wasn’t the case, but no kid has bought in on that more than him. He’s had some bad games for us. We beat Tennessee and he wasn’t on the court for the last three minutes, but the first kid out on the court jumping into somebody’s arms was him.”

Oakland took a 46-34 lead in the break and pushed its lead to as many as 25 points in the second half as senior Keith Benson took over the scoring load.

Benson finished with 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting against additional attention from Southern Utah defenders.

An 11-0 scoring run by the Thunderbirds in the latter part of the second half narrowed the gap, but OU had already distanced itself from any threat of a comeback.

“They have so many weapons and when they play well, its tough to beat a team like that,” Southern Utah coach Roger Reid said. “The reason (Oakland) is the champ of this league and they’ve only lost two games in two years is because they have that kind of talent.”

The Grizzlies uncharacteristically lost the rebounding battle, 32-30, but six critically important offensive rebounds by Will Hudson, in particular, helped keep OU’s offense from stalling.

Also reaching double figures for Oakland was freshman Travis Bader (13 points) and senior Larry Wright (11 points).

Having advanced past Southern Utah, the Grizzlies will await the outcome of Sunday night’s matchup between No. 4 IPFW and No. 5 South Dakota State to learn who they face.

“What you have to do is worry yourself,” Kampe said. “I just told them in the locker room that our next worry isn’t our next opponent. It’s tomorrow and how we’re going to handle a day off … Every moment of every day, you have to win the day.”

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Follow @DanFenner on Twitter for updates and analysis throughout the tournament March 5-8.

Photos by Dave Eggen and Dick Carlson / Inertia