The Oakland men’s basketball team took care of business on Wednesday, Jan. 17, beating the Youngstown State University (YSU) Penguins at the OU Credit Union O’rena to claim the team’s sixth straight conference win.
“I’m happy that we won, and obviously, it’s an exciting time for us,” head coach Greg Kampe said. “That’s a really good basketball team with a really good coach. They did some good things against our zone today that we haven’t seen before.”
Chris Conway was the top scorer for the team, tallying 17 points from all three levels of the court. In addition to Conway, Trey Townsend and Blake Lampman also scored in double figures. Townsend scored 16 points, while Lampman found nylon for 11 points.
To start the game, the Penguins claimed an early double-digit lead, going on a 13-0 run while holding the Grizzlies scoreless through the first five minutes of the half. The Penguins found some easy buckets down low while staying active on the glass as YSU pulled in four offensive rebounds during their run.
Despite the slow start for the Grizzlies, the team battled back throughout the rest of the first, as OU’s defense prevented YSU from running away with an excessive lead. In addition to some solid defense, the Grizzlies started to piece the puzzle together on offense, scoring 22 points in the final nine minutes of the half.
Although the Grizzlies couldn’t take the lead from the Penguins for the rest of the quarter, OU was able to erase the original 13-point deficit and trailed 31-28 at the end of the half. Notably, the OU defense held the YSU offense to shoot just 36.1% from the field and 18.1% from deep.
At the start of the second half, Townsend hit a wide-open three to tie the game at 31 points each. Following Townsend’s game-tying basket, the Penguins jumped to a six-point lead as the team capitalized on a 14-9 run.
Responding to YSU’s run, DQ Cole took matters into his own hands, scoring eight straight points in a minute to give the Grizzlies their first lead. In the next two possessions, a free throw from Tuburu Naivalurua and a 3-pointer from Jack Gohlke extended the OU lead to six points.
Throughout the remainder of the second half, YSU was able, at one point, to tie the score at 52 with nine minutes to go. Despite the Penguins’ resurgence, the Grizzlies were able to hang on to the lead as the game came down to the final possession.
With OU leading by one point and the Penguins in possession with the shot clock turned off, Rocket Watts intercepted a YSU inbound pass. Subsequently, YSU was called for goaltending on a Watts layup attempt, and the Grizzlies’ defense locked up for a final time to win 70-67.
“Our defense gave us a chance to win this game,” Kampe said. “You win championships; you win games many ways. But teams that are built on defense usually play a lot of close games, a lot of games like this, and right now, we just believe we’re going to win.”
Next, the Grizzlies will take on the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Phoenix on Thursday, Jan. 25, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panthers on Saturday, Jan. 27. Both games will be played on the road.
“We’re feeling good, but it doesn’t really matter,” Lampman said. “We’re looking ahead to our next game… We got to have a quick memory and keep the momentum going.”