Ohio hands Oakland rare home loss
ROCHESTER – Oakland University has proven to be a difficult team to play inside the confines of the Athletics Center O’rena in recent years. Ohio University found away to crack the code Wednesday and steal a road win at a site few teams have been able to win in the past three schools years.
Travis Bader had a chance and to tie the game in the waning seconds, but his shot fell just short, as Ohio ended Oakland’s 11-game home court winning streak with an 84-82 victory over the Golden Grizzlies.
Bader finished with 21 points for the Grizzlies (6-3). Corey Petros added a double-double with 23 points and 16 rebounds, both career highs, while Reggie Hamilton scored 23 points and had seven assists for Oakland.
The Bobcats (6-1) were led by D.J. Cooper’s 18 points. He was followed by Stevie Taylor and T.J. Hall with 13 and 10 points, respectively. The Bobcats’ bench outscored the Golden Grizzlies, 42-8.
The Golden Grizzlies trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half, but cut the deficit to seven at the break, 46-39. Oakland stormed out of halftime with a 14-7 run to tie the contest at 53 with 15:40 remaining in the game.
There were six ties and eight lead changes in the second half and it looked like the Golden Grizzlies would fall when Ohio held an eight-point lead, 82-74, with 1:15 left and Ricardo Johnson was going to the free-throw line. After two misses, Petros scored at the other end and was fouled, completing the old-fashion three-point play to cut the lead to five, 82-77.
Oakland created a turnover on the next possession and Hamilton was fouled on a 3-point attempt, converting all three free throws to slice the lead down to just two, 82-80. The Bobcats’ Cooper split a pair of free throws after a foul and Bader took an easy layup to make the score 83-82 with just 16 seconds remaining.
This time OU fouled Ivo Baltic and he went to the line for two shots. After missing the first, Baltic made the second and the Golden Grizzlies were down two points. Bader then took the ball outside the three-point line and drove to the basket, just missing the five-foot jump shot as the Grizzlies fell by two points.
Category: Campus Clips, Colleges / Other, Oakland University
