Oakland hits century mark in pounding Centenary
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
ROCHESTER HILLS — Inside and out, Oakland has multiple weapons on the basketball court. The Golden Grizzlies went deep into their arsenal Saturday night against Centenary.
Oakland landed 10 of 11 active players into the scoring column and pounded Centenary 100-70 in front of a crowd of over 3,600 at the Athletics Center O’rena, as part of OU’s homecoming celebration.
Senior Keith Benson poured in a season-high 30 points on the strength of 13-for-17 shooting from the floor to go along with seven blocked shots to lead the Golden Grizzlies (16-8, 11-0), who are now unbeaten in 109 straight conference games dating back to the middle of last season.
The Grizzlies dominated the Gents 56-16 in the paint.
Reggie Hamilton added 18 points and seven assists, Travis Bader added 16 points, 12 off three-pointers, Will Hudson chipped in with 13 points and Larry Wright followed with nine points for Oakland.
Logan Lowery and Johnathan Blount both finished with 12 points and Andrew Rebol added 10 points for winless Centenary ((0-23, 0-11).
“I thought we played well offensively in the first half, but had too many turnovers,” said OU coach Greg Kampe “Centenary played well in the first half, but we were able to step up our defense in the second half.”
The Golden Grizzlies, who recorded a team-best 16 steals, have now won 26 straight league games at home. Hamilton surpassed 1,000 points for his career, pushing his total to 1,006. Benson has now reached 20 or more points in four straight games and the Grizzlies are riding a season-best nine-game winning streak, having not lost since Dec. 23 at No. 1 Ohio State.
OU trailed by as many as six points early in the first half, but the Golden Grizzlies used a 7-0 run to take a 10-point lead midway through the first 20 minutes and led by eight at halftime, 44-36. Benson posted 18 points and six blocked shots in the opening half.
The Golden Grizzlies controlled the entire second half, outscoring the Gents 56-34 in that 20-minute span. Oakland led by as many as 34 in the second half.
OU also forced Centenary, which is dropping out of Division I athletics at the end of the school year, into 26 turnovers. Oakland scored 30 points off turnovers in the contest.
OAKLAND NOTEBOOK
The Golden Grizzlies are 40-2 in their last 42 games against league opponents, including the 2009 and 2010 Summit League tournaments. Their only losses in that run were to North Dakota State in the Summit League tournament finals in 2009 and midway through the 2009-10 campaign to IUPUI, which the Grizzlies avenged in the tournament finals last season to earn an NCAA berth.
Oakland is also riding a nine-game win streak, which is the seventh current longest streak in Division I.
OU’s dominance the past two seasons can be said in its 41-4 record against non-BCS teams. Most of Oakland’s losses the past two years have come from schools from power conferences.
To submit information to www.northoaklandsports.com, e-mail dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com. To advertise, e-mail advertising@northoaklandsports.com
Category: Oakland University, Prep Wraps
