It didn’t feature game-winning shot in the final seconds like last season, but Saturday’s Homecoming game between the Oakland University men’s basketball team and Centenary College certainly capped off an exciting day for the Grizzlies’ faithful.

Behind the strength of senior Keith Benson’s season-high 30 points and seven blocked shots, Oakland moved to 11-0 in the Summit League by knocking off the Gents, 100-70.

The Grizzlies got off to a sluggish start, and found themselves behind 8-2 in the opening minutes of the game. By halftime, Oakland had only managed to build a 44-36 lead over winless Centenary, which showed no resemblance to the team OU blew out earlier in the season.

Head coach Greg Kampe’s initial post-game statement summed up the Grizzlies performance quite succinctly.

“I wasn’t happy and then I got happy,” Kampe said of the discrepancy between the two halves and his team’s effort.

“They were scoring against us and getting good looks against us. We want pressure on the ball (handler) with our athleticism. We want to swarm the ball and I didn’t see that (in the first half). I saw complacency, and I’m not really good with complacency, so I was upset.”

A decision to switch to a full-court press defense in the second half gave Centenary fits bringing the ball up the court. Kampe credited Associate coach Jeff Tungate with the idea that ultimately helped OU pull away.

“The guards were really getting out there on the perimeter pressuring the ball in the second half and that’s what really turned the game around,” Benson said of the defensive switch. “(Centenary) felt nervous and we were getting a lot of turnovers.”

Twenty-six turnovers to be exact, of which 17 came after halftime.

Early in the second half, junior Reggie Hamilton scored 12-straight points for Oakland, surpassing 1,000 career points in the process.

To the delight of the 3,675 fans reportedly in attendance, Benson and teammate Will Hudson were each able to slam down several dunks to fire up the crowd.

“It’s great when you have a big home crowd behind you and a lot of people come to support you,” redshirt freshman Travis Bader said. “I just wish we played at home more (this season) with the big fan base we have. It’s great when you make a shot and hear the roar of the crowd to really get us going.”

Bader finished with 16 points, including his typical allotment of 3-pointers (4-for-7). In all, 10 different players scored for the Grizzlies on the night.

“I’ve never coached a team like this offensively … This team is unbelievable. We go eight deep and we can score eight different ways,” Kampe said. “The issue with this team is if anyone (beats) us, it’s because we turn it over and we think we’re so good that we try to do too many great things.”

With another pair of wins under its belt, Oakland will hit the road this week for games against Western Illinois and IUPUI on Thursday and Saturday, respectively.

The latter game against the Jaguars is arguably OU’s toughest remaining game, as the Grizzlies will look to avenge last year’s road loss — the one defeat in their 17-1 finish a year ago. The game will be played at Conseco Fieldhouse, home of the NBA’s Indiana Pacers.

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Dan Fenner is the Senior Editor of The Oakland Post and covers Oakland University basketball.  You can follow him on Twitter @DanFenner for updates and analysis throughout the week.