McCamey takes over as Illini rally past Oakland
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – It took 7:22 of time off the clock until players in the Illinois-Oakland men’s basketball game could alert the officials that the game ball being used was a women’s basketball.
After that switch, Illinois settled down and slowly came back to down the visiting Golden Grizzlies 74-63 at Assembly Hall.
All-American candidate Demetri McCamey scored 29 points, one of his career high, in leading the No. 16 Fighting Illini (9-1) to the comeback win.
Oakland led 29-25 at the half before McCamey took over.
McCamey sparked an 18-0 run, including 11 straight points that featured a pair of threes, a layup and an old fashioned three-point play to helped Illinois rally back from a nine-point deficit to a 45-36 lead with 14:52 to go.
Illinois never trailed again and Oakland never clawed back to anything less than three points.
D.J. Richardson nailed four 3-pointers and chipped in with 16 points for Illinois. Jerome Richmond added 10 points off the bench and Mike Tisdale added seven points and nine rebounds and held Oakland center Keith Benson off rhythm.
Reggie Hamilton scored 18 and Will Hudson added 14 points for Oakland (5-4), which was held to 5-for-26 shooting from beyond the three-point arc. Benson added 11 points and seven rebounds, far off his 19 points and 12 rebounds a game average.
Oakland, which is 1-25 all-time against ranked teams, outrebounded the taller Illini by a 45-34 margin.
Category: Oakland University
