Home, sweet home: Oakland returns to O’rena to down North Dakota State
ROCHESTER HILLS – Behind another fine offensive performance form Bethany Watterworth and Sharise Calhoun, Oakland University was able to return home and record a 68-52 Summit League women’s basketball victory over North Dakota State Saturday afternoon.
Watterworth finished with 24 points and Calhoun chipped in with 18 points on the offensive end, while Brittany Carnago tied the school record for career blocks on the defensive end to lead the Golden Grizzlies (10-9, 5-4).
“I thought we did some new things tonight, since it’s the second time we’ve faced this team in league play,” said Oakland head coach Beckie Francis. “I thought we did some new things tonight and the team adjusted to that and I’m proud of the performance of Sharise (Calhoun) and Bethany (Watterworth), who both showed some great leadership tonight.”
After trailing by as many as seven points early, the Golden Grizzlies ended the first half on a 20-5 run to lead 30-20 at the intermission. Calhoun’s 10 first-half points paced the OU team, which surrendered only two baskets over the final 11:18 of the half and held ND State to just 28.6 percent shooting in the period.
North Dakota State (7-15, 4-6) battled back to within four points early in the second half, but a three-point-play by Watterworth spurred a 13-8 run that put the game out of reach. Carnago had a game-high four blocks and led Oakland with five assists. She is now tied with Helen Shereda with 258 career blocked shots.
“Brittany Carnago gave us some great assists and our freshmen played great,” added Francis.
Oakland scored 40 points in the paint and shot 42.1 percent from the field while holding NDSU to just 33.3 percent. The Golden Grizzlies also won the battle of the boards 40-37, improving to 8-4 when winning the battle of the boards. A total of 10 different players scored for OU, which failed to score a 3-pointer for the first time all season.
Janae Burich and Dani DeGagne scored 12 points each to lead North Dakota State. The Bison shot just 20 percent from beyond the arc, going 4-for-20. Abby Plucker had a game-high 11 rebounds for the Bison.
The Golden Grizzlies split the season series with NDSU after falling 78-65 earlier this season in Fargo, N.D. OU has won two straight games and five of its last six games.
Oakland will return to the O’rena on Monday to host league-leading South Dakota State at 6:30 p.m.
Category: Campus Clips, Colleges / Other, Oakland University
