The Golden Grizzlies warm up at Crisler Arena/Samantha Franz
By Samantha Franz
Sports Editor
After an embarrassing 82-73 defeat at the hands of lowly conference opponent Southern Utah University Saturday (1-1 Summit, 2-7 overall), the Oakland University Golden Grizzlies hoped to seek redemption Wednesday against the struggling University of Michigan (4-6 overall) in Ann Arbor.
But the Wolverines proved to be too much for OU to handle, and the Golden Grizzlies (1-1 Summit, 4-6 overall) were handed a commanding 103-7 loss. The contest marked two four-game streaks for these teams--U-M finally won a game after four consecutive losses and OU continues to be winless on the road, going 0-4 away from the O'Rena.
"We had 76 possessions in this game," head coach Greg Kampe said. "But all that made us do was be on defense. We didn't play defense, but we were on defense. They got confidence because they got easy baskets, then began making the hard shots."
OU started the game out on a strong note, thanks to a rim-rattling dunk from freshman Keith Benson. It became back-and-forth basketball, for the next eight minutes, as OU never led by more than four points. But after a dunk from U-M's Zack Gibson, the score was tied at 21 with 12:56 remaining and the Golden Grizzlies would never come close again for the remainder of the contest.
The Wolverines led by as many as 17 points in the first half, before OU went on a mini-scoring run that was capped off by a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from junior Erik Kangas, which brought OU within 13 going into the second half.
Going into the second half, the Golden Grizzlies came barrelling out of the gates and by the 17:32 mark, they came within five points of the home team. But Michigan took charge and went on a 14-3 scoring run that resulted in a 79-58 lead at the half's midway point. The Golden Grizzlies just couldn't gather enough steam to make a comeback, keeping U-M's record at home flawless at 4-0.
"I don't know how much basketball we played in the second half," Kampe said. "I think I heard someone in the fourth or fifth row yell, 'I got next!'"
Junior Derick Nelson became a floor leader in the second half and, after scoring only four points in the first half, repeatedly drove the lane for 27 second half points, tying his career-high 31 points in a game and leading all scorers on the floor. Kangas's five 3-pointers helped propel him to 24 points in the game.
According to head coach Greg Kampe, the uptempo basketball he was looking forward to using on his players this season backfired in the worst kind of way against the Wolverines.
Perhaps they should have taken a cue from the proverbial tortoise.
"We wanted to get the game at a breakneck speed and breakneck tempo," he said. "It was a very poor choice on my part obviously. Nothing we did worked. We made some mental errors, especially our young post players."
After taking a week off, the Golden Grizzlies will host cross-town rivals Rochester College at 7 p.m. at the O'Rena.
Impressing Beilien--U-M's coach expressed thankfulness for being able to defeat OU by such a large margin, because judging by what he's seen before, "I would not want to be up only four or five points to this team."
Going off the deep end?--Though the loss to U-M means nothing in terms of conference play, Kampe hopes his squad remains steady when they reenter the Summit League in January. "If our conference goes up and down, we'll be in trouble," he said. "But even though I'm ready to jump off a bridge, they cannot."
Lawal in trouble?--Starter Shane Lawal, after having some big games, seemed to be non-existent against U-M, scoring no points and committing two turnovers. "Shane struggled tonight," Kampe said. "When I put him in the second half, we were down 13. When I pulled him out, we were down 22. He was not on his game."
