By Tim Rath

Contributing Reporter

 

As the latest winter blast crippled travel plans all across the Midwest, the Oakland University women’s basketball team was not immune to delays.

 

No, the no. 1-seeded Golden Grizzlies weren’t stranded in some airport on their way to kick off the Summit League Championship Tournament in Tulsa, Okla. Rather, they simply didn’t play well for most of their first half of their quarterfinal matchup against Centenary College Saturday afternoon.

 

Despite the slow start, the Grizzlies advanced to the semi-finals of the tournament with a 60-49 victory over the eighth-seeded Ladies.

 

“I told them not to listen to fans and parents because we beat Centenary by 50 at home and [they might say] ‘how come you didn’t beat them by more [today]?'” head coach Beckie Francis said. “Usually, every one-eight game is close, and it happens all over the country.”

 

Because of the dominating fashion of the two regular season victories against Centenary (a 93-43 pounding Jan. 14 and a 72-55 win on Feb. 9), there was a level of surprise when the Ladies took an 18-17 lead with 8:09 remaining in the first half.

 

OU regained the advantage after a jumper from junior and conference first-team member Jessica Pike gave the Grizzlies a 19-18 lead with 6:45 to go. However, it wasn’t until Pike hit a pair of freethrows with 3:32 in the half that Oakland began to really take off.

 

Freshman forward Brittany Carnago capped off the subsequent 8-0 run after a layup with less than a minute remaining to give OU a 28-20 halftime lead.

 

Centenary came into the second half inspired, as they closed the gap to 28-25 with 16:13 left to play. However, the Grizzlies found their momentum and pushed the lead to double digits, 41-31, after a 3-pointer from Pike at the 12:49 mark.

 

Francis then cleared the bench and the lead still never dropped below double digits for the rest of the game. Freshman guard Stacey Farrell was a key contributor off the bench with 10 points and four assists, helping the Golden Grizzlies finish the game on cruise control en route to the 60-49 victory.

 

“We had a certain strategy for getting a lot of people in,” Francis said. “I think 14 people played and I was really happy with that. I was really proud with how they kept their composure and how some freshman, particularly Stacey Farrell, really stepped up.”

 

Joining Farrell in double digits was Pike, who was just shy of a double-double with 15 points and nine rebounds. Sophomore Melissa Jeltema, a conference second team member, also came close to notching her eighth double-double of the season, scoring nine points and pulling down 11 rebounds.

 

OU out-passed the Ladies, contributing 18 assists compared to Centenary’s eight, and forced 24 turnovers.

The Grizzlies’ comeback, however, can mostly be attributed to their improved shooting in the second half, going from shooting 29 percent to 41 percent. The cold streak did not bother Francis in the least.

 

“I’m not really concerned because we are the best shooting team in the league,” Francis said.

 

The Golden Grizzlies will play the winner of today’s Oral Roberts/IPFW game Monday afternoon, March 10, at 1 p.m. EST.

 

 

Hey fans!

 

Don’t miss a minute of tournament action! Stay updated with our blog at http://www.oaklandpostsports.blogspot.com/ and check out photo galleries of all of the games at sports editor Samantha Franz’s Picasa page at http://picasaweb.google.com/franz.samantha