Western Michigan plays the Grinch, steals rare win inside Oakland’s O’rena

BY DAN STICKRADT

SENIOR EDITOR

dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com

ROCHESTER HILLS — The Grinch arrived in Rochester Hills Friday night and stole Christmas. And he was disguised as a bronco.

Western Michigan came into the Athletics Center O’rena and stymied the Golden Grizzlies by a 91-76 count in a non-league men’s basketball holiday hoops showdown between intra-state rivals.

Western Michigan scored from the inside, from the outside and dominated in most phases of the game. The Bronchos shot 55.6 percent from the floor (30-for-54) and 45.5 percent from three-point range (10-for-22) and never trailed, racing out to an 11-5 lead in the first three minutes and never looking back.

“I was pleased with everybody’s effort. We’ve been shorthanded and we’ve kept getting more and more short-handed (with injuries),’ said Western Michigan coach Steve Hawkins. The guys we’ve put out there though this stretch where we’ve kind of got our footing have stepped up. The constants through the whole thing have been (Mike Douglas and Demetrius Ward). Everybody else has come in and played their role and played well.

“Obviously Oakland doesn’t lose a lot of games in this building,” continued Hawkins. “It’s a great win for us and something to feel good about going into Christmas.”

It was only Oakland’s fourth loss in the O’rena in three years and the first time in more than five seasons the Grizzlies have lost at home by double figures.

Western Michigan built a 45-27 lead by the break, fueled by a 21-10 rebounding edge, a 12-2 advantage on second-chance points and a crisp 17-for-29 shooting performance over the first 20 minutes.

Freshman Richie Austin canned four triples and was 8-for-8 from the foul line for 22 points, leading all five Western Michigan starters in double figures. It was a career-high for Austin, Indiana’s leading scorer at the prep level last year.

Mike Douglas added 19 points and six assists, 6-10 center Matt Stainbrook collected 16 points and Nate Hutcheson and Demetrius Ward both added 12 points each for injury-riddled Western Michigan (5-7), which has won four straight and five of six.

“Obviously, people who’ve been around a while, don’t see games like that in here, at for us,” said Oakland coach Greg Kampe. “Tip your hat to Western Michigan, they shot the basketball better than we did and they out played us. They deserved it. The basketball gods got the right score.”

Oakland shot just 39.3 percent (11-for-28) in the first half, and if it wasn’t for 4-fo-5 shooting from three-point land from Travis Bader, the Grizzlies would have trailed by more than 18 at the break. Oakland scored 15 of its 27 first-half points from outside the arc.

Oakland trimmed the deficit down to 11 points with an 11-0 run early in the second half, cutting the deficit down to 49-38. The Grizzlies could never bring it down to single digits, as the Bronchos answered every Oakland run.

Hamilton scored 16 straight points for Oakland to help bring the Grizzlies to with 79-66 with 4:07 to play.

OU eventually trimmed the deficit down to 81-71 on a triple from Travis Bader with 3:51 to go. Western Michigan responded again with 10-0 run to put the game away.

Hamilton finished with a game-high 27 points, but was only 7-for-23 shooting and 4-for-16 from three-point range for Oakland. The senior guard scored 16 straight at one point of the second half for Oakland, but couldn’t help the Grizzlies dig their way out of an insurmountable hole.

Bader connected on five triples and added 17 points and Drew Valentine added 10 points and seven rebounds but also committed a career-worst nine turnovers.

Hamilton said he had a subpar performance and his team followed in the wrong direction.

“My teammates look at me to stop up and I played horrible,” admitted Hamilton.

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