On Thursday, Dec. 5, the Oakland men’s basketball team made a statement, outlasting the Wright State Raiders 66-64 at the OU Credit Union O’Rena, marking their first conference win of the season.
“We just held the best offensive team in our league and one of the best mid-major offenses in the country to 64 points on a night they made 16 of 31 from the three,” head coach Greg Kampe said. “That’s almost impossible to believe.”
Although it might be impossible to believe, the Golden Grizzlies got the job done against a Wright State team that was red-hot from beyond the arc. The Raiders converted 51.6% of their tries from deep but were held to just six conversions all game from inside the three-point line.
For Oakland, Allen Mukeba filled the stat sheet with a team-high 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Additionally, Buru Naivalurua had his moments, scoring a super-efficient 14 points while coming down with seven rebounds.
Naivalurua’s growth as a player has been one key to Oakland’s success so far this season. Now that Naivalurua commands a starting position for the Golden Grizzlies, he has averaged 12.6 points, 7.6 rebounds and just over a steal per game, all improvements from the previous season.
“We’ve always thought bringing him here that he was a first-team all-league level player, and we knew that he could get there,” Kampe said about Naivalurua. “He’s still working on getting there, but he will get there, and next year, I think he could be player of the league. He could be every bit of what Trey Townsend was.”
On the other side of the court, the Raiders had three players lead the team in scoring, including Alex Huibregtse, Solomon Callaghan and Andrew Welage, who all contributed 12 points. Jack Doumbia came away with the most boards, with six off the bench.
In the first half, the Golden Grizzlies came out full steam ahead, backed by a pair of three-pointers from Jayson Woodrich. Cooper Craggs and DQ Cole joined in on the three-point party early as Oakland quickly established a double-digit lead.
Oakland’s momentum didn’t last long, as the Raiders slowly chipped into the Oakland lead, taking their first lead with just under eight minutes left. From there, it was back-and-forth between both teams before Naivalurua buried a buzzer-beater corner three that got the crowd on their feet, ending the half in favor of Oakland, 37-34.
The Golden Grizzlies got back to business in the opening moments of the second half, with another three from Woodrich and two close-range jumpers from Naivalurua bolstering the Oakland lead. Still, Wright State persisted, going on a 9-0 run to tie the game at 48-48.
As time passed in the second, neither Oakland nor Wright State could build a comfortable lead, leading to a tie-ball game with under three minutes left.
With the score at a standstill, the Golden Grizzlies walled up on defense, disallowing a single bucket the rest of the night for the Raiders. Mukeba hit the go-ahead basket with a tough layup at the one-minute mark, giving Oakland the win.
Up next, the Golden Grizzlies will turn their attention to Detroit to take on the Michigan State Spartans at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday, Dec. 17. The match against the Spartans marks the 13th consecutive year both programs will face each other with tip-off set for 7 p.m.
After that, Oakland will play Cleveland State on the road in their third conference match on Thursday, Dec. 19, before competing in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic from Dec. 22 through Dec. 25.