Over the past month, senior Reggie Hamilton scoring at will was a common occurrence for the Oakland University (9-10, 3-4 Summit League) men’s basketball team. The same couldn’t be said for the rest of Greg Kampe’s squad.
On Saturday night, however, that all changed, as the Golden Grizzlies snapped their longest losing streak in years with a decisive 93-81 victory over the IUPUI Jaguars.
Hamilton led all scorers with 31 points on 10-of-14 shooting. He also tallied six rebounds and three assists. Sophomore Ryan Bass continued his inspired play as of late, tallying a career-high 14 points, five assists, and three rebounds in 27 minutes as the starting point guard.
Oakland shot 54.9 percent, their best performance of the season, and took 31 free throws compared to just 17 for the Jaguars. The Grizzlies also outrebounded IUPUI 33-30.
Junior Drew Valentine had just nine points, only the sixth time he’s had under 10 points all season long. He did, however, corral eight rebounds and harassed IUPUI star forward Alex Young into 6-of-22 shooting for 21 points.
Kampe once again went with a modified lineup, starting freshmen Dante Williams and Kyle Sikora. The two played just a combined 15 minutes, with freshman Corey Petros and Travis Bader both playing over 30 minutes each instead. Petros erupted out of a month-long slump with 20 points and six rebounds, while Bader scored 13 points with just one 3-pointer.
OU jumped out to a quick 9-2 lead and kept the lead for much of the first half, taking a 49-37 lead into halftime. The team shot a season-high 62 percent (18-of-29) in the first 20 minutes and held the Jaguars to just 41 percent (15-of-37).
IUPUI closed the gap to 64-56 in the second half with 9:48 left in the game, but the Grizzlies’ lead grew to 15 points on five straight points from Petros with just under eight minutes left in the game. They would maintain a double-digit lead for the rest of the game.
Oakland will have a week off between games, resuming their schedule on Saturday, Jan. 14, on the road against IPFW (9-7, 3-4 Summit League). The Mastodons, who also have a week span between games, are coming off a 75-65 loss to Western Illinois on Saturday night.
Ref: OUGrizzlies/Jose Juarez (photo), ESPN
