By JOSEPH GUZMAN

Senior Reporter

The Oakland University men’s basketball team (19-11 overall, 12-5 conference) defeated Southern Utah University (10-18 overall, 8-9 conference) 78-62 in a hard fought, but ultimately laughable game.

The win brings their current win-streak to six games, and stretches its home- winning streak to 12 games, while ending a 4-game losing streak to SUU.

The three -headed monster of Jones, Kangas and Benson led all scorers with 17, 15 and 16 points, respectively.   With 11 rebounds, Benson recorded his eighth double-double of the season, tying the school Division I record. He also led the team with five blocks.

After the game Jones talked about how the win was significant, continuing the momentum heading into the Summit League Tournament, getting the monkey off their backs and finally beating the Thunderbirds.

“It means a lot going into the tournament, we might have to face them again, so getting that confidence against them really helps us out,” Jones said.

Although he has 65 assists over the last four games, averaging 9.2 against Summit League opponents, he recorded a mere five in this game.

The night started out fast as the team raced out to a 17-4 lead just five minutes into the game. SU’s biggest mistake was trying to attack OU down low, which caused the defense to collapse on top of the shooter, resulting in four quick turnovers.

After stretching the lead to 12 with just under 10 minutes to go in the half, SU changed their approach to cutting into the lead by trying to run on OU. The teams traded 10 straight baskets, before OU went on a 9-4 run to close out the half, up 45-30.

It was clear that SU simply could not match up, player for player, against OU’s talent. The Grizzlies finished the half with 18 points in the paint and 12 off turnovers.

“We came out and we made everything to start,” said Kampe. “We were focused, we got where we were suppose to be we played workman-like through [the rest of the game].”

 

The second half was more of the same.

The Thunderbirds could not get closer than 12 points for the rest of the game, as OU’s lead would reach 21, 70-49, with just under seven minutes to play. As the game got out of hand, everyone got into the act, as seldom used reserve, Ilija Milutinovic, capped the night off with a hard fought offensive rebound laying it in for his only two points, with just 30 seconds left to play.

Hot shooting and team defense decided the game for OU, as they out-shot SU, 51% – 41%, and out-rebounded SU, 32-26.

The team looks to go undefeated at home for the season, Saturday against UMKC.