Duck Season

Golden Grizzlies knock off ranked Oregon in historic win

By Samantha Franz
Sports Editor

AUBURN HILLS, Mich.--The cards were laid out perfectly for the University of Oregon Ducks. Two of their starters, Malik Hairston and Tajuan Porter were making a homecoming to Detroit (both are graduates of Detroit Renaissance), they were ranked 23rd in the nation, according to the AP Poll and were in a perfect position to rebound after an overtime loss to Nebraska on Dec. 15.


What they weren’t counting on was a resilient Oakland University team to take an 11-point lead in the first half and battle back from a 20-0 Oregon run in the second half, thus giving Oakland a 68-62 victory, OU’s first-ever over a top-25 team.

“This is the most important game in my 24 years here,” said head coach Greg Kampe. "People might say “You beat Michigan and you won an NCAA tournament game [in 2005],” but this is the biggest.”


The Oakland (6-6) and Oregon (8-3) match up was the nightcap of the Dick’s Sporting Goods Spartan Clash Saturday night at the Palace of Auburn Hills and the home team put on a performance that was a great early Christmas present for Golden Grizzlies fans.


The Ducks drew first blood with a quick lay-up by starting forward Joevan Catron, but was quickly countered by two back-to-back 3-pointers by OU junior Erik Kangas, and the Grizzlies took a 6-2 lead.


The score would continue to see-saw between the two teams until Oregon took their final lead of the half at 12:56 with a 12-9 advantage. After that, it was all Oakland. Junior Derick Nelson led the charge with 11 first-half points and five boards and helped his team leave the Ducks stunned as the ranked team found themselves in a 37-26 hole going into halftime.


But Oregon was ranked for a reason and they demonstrated that in the second half. In less than four minutes going into the half, three Oregon 3-pointers and two trips to the free throw line suddenly cut Oakland’s lead from 13 all the way down to a tie. This deficit became part of a 20-0 Oregon scoring run that ended with Oakland down by seven points with 14:33 to go in the contest.


But Oakland didn’t surrender and they began to battle back. Senior sixth man Brandon Cassie got the ball rolling with a three-point play, thanks to being fouled on a fade away jumper with 8:16 remaining, bringing OU within one, 52-51. Clutch shots from Kangas and aggressive drives from Nelson helped OU gain a 60-54 advantage with about four minutes to go.


The Ducks would tie the game one more time with two 3-pointers by Porter and Bryce Taylor, making the score 60-60 with three minutes left. But trips to the charity stripe would keep OU on top and when the buzzer rang out, the Golden Grizzlies celebrated their 68-62 victory, their first over a top-25 team.

“This means a lot to me and (the) players, but it means more to the program,” Nelson said about being part of the historic victory. “This is about all the players who helped bring Oakland to Division I and the players that will be here in the future.” Nelson finished the night with 22 points.

The Golden Grizzlies will have a few days off for the holidays before jetting off to Ohio to take on the University of Toledo Dec. 29. at 7 p.m. The game can be heard on 88.3 WXOU.


Noise Factor: Spartan Clash proved to be a sell-out, with 22,076 fans in attendance for the first game of Michigan State University against Texas. A few thousand fans stuck around for game two, though judging by the noise level, the arena could have easily been half full.

Grizzlies sing the Blues

OU falls 103-87 to U-M, uptempo plays proves to be downfall

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."