West Virginia upends Oakland in season opener

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Oakland University’s 2010-11 men’s basketball season kicked off Friday the same way the last season ended: with a lopsided loss to a team from a powerhouse conference.

Senior Keith Benson recorded a double-double with 22 points and 15 rebounds, senior Will Hudson had 16 points and nine rebounds and freshman Travis Bader had a strong debut with 15 points, but Oakland University could not overcome 67-percent (22-for-33) shooting by West Virginia in the first half as the Golden Grizzlies (0-1) fell to the Mountaineers, 95-71, in men’s basketball action at the WVU Coliseum on Friday night.

“We wanted this game and we wanted it early,” said OU coach Greg Kampe, whose team was eliminated by Pittsburgh, also of the Big East, in last year’s NCAA Tournament.. “We wanted to play a team that pressures the ball because we lost a four-year starter at the point, so we knew we were going to struggle on offense. They shot the ball unbelievably (well) in the first half, and a lot of that was uncontested off our turnovers. I thought we did pretty good against their pressure in the second half.”

The Mountaineers (1-0) had six players in double figures, led by John Flowers’ 16 points. Deniz Kilicli had a double-double for WVU with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Senior Larry Wright, junior Reggie Hamilton and sophomore Ledrick Eackles all fouled out for Oakland in the second half with a combined 15 points.

The Golden Grizzlies committed 12 turnovers in the first half that led to 21 WVU points and the Mountaineers buried 9-of-14 3-pointers to take a commanding 24-pont lead at halftime, 55-31.

Benson came alive in the second half, while Hamilton and Bader connected on back-to-back 3-pointers as Oakland cut the lead to 15 points, 63-48, with 13:59 remaining. That would be as close as the Grizzlies would get as they tired with a shortened bench.

Benson, a native of Farmington Hills, Mich., now has 30 career double-doubles. He had 16 points and 11 rebounds in the final 20 minutes. OU and WVU each scored 40 points in the second half.

West Virginia held a massive edge in bench scoring, 34-12, and scored 30 points off 18 Oakland turnovers. The Golden Grizzlies also shot just 39 percent (25-65) for the game, compared to WVU’s 51 percent (32-63).

The Mountaineers have now won 31 straight games at home against non-conference opponents. The loss ends the Grizzlies’ eight-game regular-season winning streak, dating back to last season.

Oakland will travel to Athens for a non-conference battle with defending Mid-American champion Ohio University on Nov. 15. Game time is set for 7 p.m. and can be followed via live stats at OUgrizzlies.com.

Category: Oakland University, Uncategorized