Tournament hopes smashed

IUPUI’s Hill nets 32 points to rub in OU defeat

*Note: Due to http://www.oaklandpostonline.com/ being down, semi-final stories will be posted here.

By Samantha Franz
Sports Editor

TULSA, Okla. --To paraphrase a certain Detroit Piston, the numbers don’t lie.

Thirty-two: the number of points IUPUI junior and NBA prospect George Hill scored, which is also two shy of his career-high.

Thirty-six: shooting percentage Oakland University was held to in the contest.

Fourteen: Young men of Golden Grizzlies basketball who will be sent off on a plane back to Rochester, Mich. empty-handed.

And just like that, the third-seeded Golden Grizzlies were knocked out in the semi-finals of the Summit League Championship Tournament Monday night by the second-seeded IUPUI Jaguars, 80-65.

"They need to be congratulated," said head coach Greg Kampe said. "They played a great game tonight and we didn't."

The Jaguars got off to a fast start against the Golden Grizzlies, shooting ahead to a seven point lead in less than four minutes, with a 10-3 lead at the 16:44 mark.

While the Golden Grizzlies had two double-digit scorers in the first half, with sophomore Johnathon Jones and junior Derick Nelson scoring 11 points, they could not get over the single-digit bumps in the first half, thanks in part to Hill’s 16 first half points.

At the half, OU was behind four, thanks to a 3-pointer by junior Erik Kangas at the last second to bring the score to 37-33.

The second half started out promising for Oakland, with freshman Tim Williams, who started in the absence of Brandon Cassisie, scoring a quick layup out of the gate to cut IUPUI’s lead to two points, 37-35.

But the momentum would not last long, as the Jags went on an 8-1 run that had them ahead by nine, 45-36, just one minute later.

Though OU fell behind by as many as 11 points before the nine minute mark, they did not give up and courtesy of some plays by Williams and Jones, Oakland was back within five, 64-59, with six minutes to go.

But a 3-pointer by Hill buried the Golden Grizzlies in a double-digit deficit for good with 2:40 remaining and in the end, it was too much ground to cover for OU and they watched IUPUI walk away with their dreams of a conference championship game with a score of 80-65.

Despite the loss, four Golden Grizzlies finished the game in double digits. Nelson led the team with a double-double of 21 points and 12 rebounds, Jones netted 18 points and had six assists, junior Erik Kangas scored 13 and Williams rounded out OU’s top scorers with 11 points.

Kangas, who scored five 3-pointers in the second half against Western Illinois University Sunday, could only muster a 1-8 showing in the game’s second half.

The Golden Grizzlies slipped on the defensive end this game, being out-rebounded on the defensive glass, 28-18 and allowing the Jags to shoot 53 percent for the game.

“We just didn’t make plays on defense like we normally do,” Jones said. “We gave up easy shots and just didn’t rotate to the players.”

To rub salt on the wound, the Golden Grizzlies received next to no help from their bench. The four substitutes, senior Patrick McCloskey, junior Shane Lawal and freshmen Peter Bunn and Will Hudson, contributed no points and only two rebounds.

With the Golden Grizzlies out of the picture, the championship game will consist of IUPUI and first-seeded Oral Roberts University, with the winner earning an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.

“The Summit League got what it probably deserves with the two best teams in the league playing tomorrow night on national TV against each other,” Kampe said. “That will be good for The Summit League.”

Tip off is set for Tuesday, March 11, at 6 p.m. CST and can be seen on ESPN.

Grizzlies knocked out by ORU

By Tim Rath
Contributing Reporter

*Note: due to http://www.oaklandpostonline.com/ being down, the semi-final stories will be posted here.

TULSA, Okla. --The Oakland University women’s basketball team fell to Oral Roberts 71-61 in the semi-finals of the Summit League Championship Tournament on Monday, but head coach Beckie Francis is already looking forward to her next encounter with ORU’s Jerry Finkbeiner.

“We just love having these games,” she said of the Golden Eagles head coach. “(Oakland) is coming back next year, and we hope to even it out. We have our whole team back, he has his whole team back.”

Oral Roberts established control of the tempo early on when they turned OU turnovers into three-pointers. The Grizzlies totaled 20 turnovers for the game, which Oral Roberts turned into 26 points.

Oral Roberts secured a 17-point lead with 5:05 left to play in the first half, 36-19, and managed the same advantage until 1:46 remained. The Grizzlies then went on a 7-0 run, capped by a three-pointer by junior guard Jessica Pike with seven seconds left in the first half to trim the lead to 10 points, 40-30.

OU left halftime inspired, and quickly managed to trim the lead to six two minutes into the half after a three-point play from freshman forward Brittany Carnego.

However, Oral Roberts once again managed to clamp down on defense and convert mistakes into three-pointers, culminating with a Jenae Voelker jump shot to extend the lead to 16, 54-38, with 14:32 left to play. Oakland began to eat away at that lead, and drew within nine after a three-pointer from Pike capped off a 7-0 run with 8:12 to play.

Pike continued a desperate, furious rally with three more three-point bombs that cut the lead to three, 63-60, with 3:48 left to play. Turnovers and fouls killed the Grizzlies’ momentum after that. Oral Roberts only allowed one more point for the rest of the contest, and pushed its lead to as many as ten to finish the contest after a free throw shooting parade.

The upset defeat marks the second consecutive season in which the Grizzlies’ season has ended in Tulsa, at the hands of Oral Roberts.

According to Francis, playing in their own backyard gave the Golden Eagles a distinct advantage against OU. “Last year, they closed school and brought the entire town,” she said. “Maybe I shouldn’t be saying this, but… I do think the home crowd helps.”

Also adding to the Grizzlies’ troubles were a rash of injuries, headlined by the broken foot of Hanna Reising. The starting sophomore forward missed the last five games of the regular season and could only manage eight minutes against Oral Roberts.

“She tried to go out there and play, but she hadn’t practiced in three weeks,” Francis said. “She hurt us because (Oral Roberts) were so focused on Pike.”

Pike led the Grizzlies in the losing effort with 18 points, four assists, and eight rebounds, while junior guard April Kidd added 12 points and eight boards. Pike’s 18 pushed her career total past 1,000 and to 1,003.

“We rushed our shots,” Pike said of OU’s 36 percent shooting. “We didn’t really run our offense.”

Summit League Basketball Tournament: Day Two

Women's first round action and how I was saddened by a Kangaroo


By Samantha Franz
Sports Editor


Saturday afternoon was the kick-off for Summit League tournament action when the first-seeded Oakland University women's team took on eighth-seeded Centenary College at noon CST.


I was not covering the game, so why was I so nervous?


That's because in addition to covering the games, Tim and I are to take out own photos with a Nikon D50 that costs about six of my Oakland Post paychecks (yes, that's a hint at how much I make haha).


I had never used a camera that nice before and I prayed I wouldn't take crappy pictures or that a Golden Grizzly wouldn't come crashing into me while I sat defenseless on the baseline.



Luckily, the photos turned out pretty sweet. You can check out the photo gallery here.



(And for the record, I escaped from the court unscathed...for that day, anyway.)



Samantha Franz/The Oakland Post
One of my best shots, I think. This
one is of Charlese Greer.


After the 60-49 victory, we indulged in another Sonic run (Tim reccomends mixing Dr. Pepper with blue coconut flavor...use your best judgement there) and relaxed until 6 p.m. CST, when we headed back to the UMAC to watch the two top men's seeds (Oral Roberts at 1st and IUPUI at 2nd).


The Oral Roberts game, as expected, was a blowout over Centenary College (man, it just wasn't their day....), which posed the question among the Oakland University media: who would win in a game? Centenary College or Rochester College?


The second game is where things got interesting. The seventh-seeded Kangaroos of UMKC were taking on second-seeded IUPUI and what on paper appeared to be a blowout turned into a great down-to-the-wire game.

But alas, I was saddened. Not by the eventual loss of the underdog, but becase of the complete lack of mobility of Kasey Kangaroo.


See, last year, the portly marsupial wowed the crowd with backflips and mid-air spins. I told my co-workers to just wait for the timeouts. They were going to be dazzled.


Instead, I felt like an idiot because the stupid thing just sat there on it's overweight behind and stared blankly into space.





Myspace videos
Move your ass, buddy.


I felt like that old cartoon where the frog puts on a top hat and dances, but only when nobody else is looking.


Ah, well. Look for more Tulsa escapaes later.

Summit League Basketball Tournament: Day One

By Samantha Franz
Sports Editor

I always seem to be traveling to Tulsa, Okla at the right times. Last year, both the men's and women's Oakland University basketball teams made it to the championship game. This year, not only is this the inagural year for the league's Summit League monkier, but I also completely bypassed the winter storm that blasted the Midwest.


Associated Press
Sucks to be you, Ohio.

But just like last year, I am not alone. By my side is contributing reporter Tim Rath, who will be covering the women's tournament, and Brad Doescher and Corey Hagood of WXOU radio.

The flights were fairly smooth, although there was one minor freakout session when our 8:40 a.m. flight to Chicago was delayed. The pilot announced that, "While we are good here, the wheels are up, so we're going to be delayed another 25 minutes.

Um, what? Is that pilot slang?

Though our plane took off not too long after the announcement, we landed at O'Hare at 10:17, late for our 9:55 takeoff to Tulsa.

"Great," we thought. "We're going to be stranded here...AGAIN." (See last year's entry on our 5 1/2 hour delay).

Then, the miracle happened. It turned out that the plane that had just taken us to Chicaco was also going to take us to Tulsa.

Hooray!

Samantha Franz/The Oakland Post
I love having window seats.

Not only did we land on time, but actually had time to relax and check out the main drag on 71st Street.

First order of business? Sonic, of course. Duh.


Samantha Franz/The Oakland Post
Corey is totally excited.
I have a feeling multiple meals will be
coming from here.

Duck Season

Golden Grizzlies knock off ranked Oregon in historic win

By Samantha Franz
Sports Editor

AUBURN HILLS, Mich.--The cards were laid out perfectly for the University of Oregon Ducks. Two of their starters, Malik Hairston and Tajuan Porter were making a homecoming to Detroit (both are graduates of Detroit Renaissance), they were ranked 23rd in the nation, according to the AP Poll and were in a perfect position to rebound after an overtime loss to Nebraska on Dec. 15.


What they weren’t counting on was a resilient Oakland University team to take an 11-point lead in the first half and battle back from a 20-0 Oregon run in the second half, thus giving Oakland a 68-62 victory, OU’s first-ever over a top-25 team.

“This is the most important game in my 24 years here,” said head coach Greg Kampe. "People might say “You beat Michigan and you won an NCAA tournament game [in 2005],” but this is the biggest.”


The Oakland (6-6) and Oregon (8-3) match up was the nightcap of the Dick’s Sporting Goods Spartan Clash Saturday night at the Palace of Auburn Hills and the home team put on a performance that was a great early Christmas present for Golden Grizzlies fans.


The Ducks drew first blood with a quick lay-up by starting forward Joevan Catron, but was quickly countered by two back-to-back 3-pointers by OU junior Erik Kangas, and the Grizzlies took a 6-2 lead.


The score would continue to see-saw between the two teams until Oregon took their final lead of the half at 12:56 with a 12-9 advantage. After that, it was all Oakland. Junior Derick Nelson led the charge with 11 first-half points and five boards and helped his team leave the Ducks stunned as the ranked team found themselves in a 37-26 hole going into halftime.


But Oregon was ranked for a reason and they demonstrated that in the second half. In less than four minutes going into the half, three Oregon 3-pointers and two trips to the free throw line suddenly cut Oakland’s lead from 13 all the way down to a tie. This deficit became part of a 20-0 Oregon scoring run that ended with Oakland down by seven points with 14:33 to go in the contest.


But Oakland didn’t surrender and they began to battle back. Senior sixth man Brandon Cassie got the ball rolling with a three-point play, thanks to being fouled on a fade away jumper with 8:16 remaining, bringing OU within one, 52-51. Clutch shots from Kangas and aggressive drives from Nelson helped OU gain a 60-54 advantage with about four minutes to go.


The Ducks would tie the game one more time with two 3-pointers by Porter and Bryce Taylor, making the score 60-60 with three minutes left. But trips to the charity stripe would keep OU on top and when the buzzer rang out, the Golden Grizzlies celebrated their 68-62 victory, their first over a top-25 team.

“This means a lot to me and (the) players, but it means more to the program,” Nelson said about being part of the historic victory. “This is about all the players who helped bring Oakland to Division I and the players that will be here in the future.” Nelson finished the night with 22 points.

The Golden Grizzlies will have a few days off for the holidays before jetting off to Ohio to take on the University of Toledo Dec. 29. at 7 p.m. The game can be heard on 88.3 WXOU.


Noise Factor: Spartan Clash proved to be a sell-out, with 22,076 fans in attendance for the first game of Michigan State University against Texas. A few thousand fans stuck around for game two, though judging by the noise level, the arena could have easily been half full.

Grizzlies sing the Blues

OU falls 103-87 to U-M, uptempo plays proves to be downfall

The Golden Grizzlies warm up at Crisler Arena/Samantha Franz

By Samantha Franz

Sports Editor

After an embarrassing 82-73 defeat at the hands of lowly conference opponent Southern Utah University Saturday (1-1 Summit, 2-7 overall), the Oakland University Golden Grizzlies hoped to seek redemption Wednesday against the struggling University of Michigan (4-6 overall) in Ann Arbor.

But the Wolverines proved to be too much for OU to handle, and the Golden Grizzlies (1-1 Summit, 4-6 overall) were handed a commanding 103-7 loss. The contest marked two four-game streaks for these teams--U-M finally won a game after four consecutive losses and OU continues to be winless on the road, going 0-4 away from the O'Rena.

"We had 76 possessions in this game," head coach Greg Kampe said. "But all that made us do was be on defense. We didn't play defense, but we were on defense. They got confidence because they got easy baskets, then began making the hard shots."

OU started the game out on a strong note, thanks to a rim-rattling dunk from freshman Keith Benson. It became back-and-forth basketball, for the next eight minutes, as OU never led by more than four points. But after a dunk from U-M's Zack Gibson, the score was tied at 21 with 12:56 remaining and the Golden Grizzlies would never come close again for the remainder of the contest.

The Wolverines led by as many as 17 points in the first half, before OU went on a mini-scoring run that was capped off by a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from junior Erik Kangas, which brought OU within 13 going into the second half.

Going into the second half, the Golden Grizzlies came barrelling out of the gates and by the 17:32 mark, they came within five points of the home team. But Michigan took charge and went on a 14-3 scoring run that resulted in a 79-58 lead at the half's midway point. The Golden Grizzlies just couldn't gather enough steam to make a comeback, keeping U-M's record at home flawless at 4-0.

"I don't know how much basketball we played in the second half," Kampe said. "I think I heard someone in the fourth or fifth row yell, 'I got next!'"

Junior Derick Nelson became a floor leader in the second half and, after scoring only four points in the first half, repeatedly drove the lane for 27 second half points, tying his career-high 31 points in a game and leading all scorers on the floor. Kangas's five 3-pointers helped propel him to 24 points in the game.

According to head coach Greg Kampe, the uptempo basketball he was looking forward to using on his players this season backfired in the worst kind of way against the Wolverines.

Perhaps they should have taken a cue from the proverbial tortoise.

"We wanted to get the game at a breakneck speed and breakneck tempo," he said. "It was a very poor choice on my part obviously. Nothing we did worked. We made some mental errors, especially our young post players."

After taking a week off, the Golden Grizzlies will host cross-town rivals Rochester College at 7 p.m. at the O'Rena.

Impressing Beilien--U-M's coach expressed thankfulness for being able to defeat OU by such a large margin, because judging by what he's seen before, "I would not want to be up only four or five points to this team."

Going off the deep end?--Though the loss to U-M means nothing in terms of conference play, Kampe hopes his squad remains steady when they reenter the Summit League in January. "If our conference goes up and down, we'll be in trouble," he said. "But even though I'm ready to jump off a bridge, they cannot."

Lawal in trouble?--Starter Shane Lawal, after having some big games, seemed to be non-existent against U-M, scoring no points and committing two turnovers. "Shane struggled tonight," Kampe said. "When I put him in the second half, we were down 13. When I pulled him out, we were down 22. He was not on his game."

Upset? Not tonight...

Auburn overcomes OU to save face, 71-63

By Samantha Franz & Rob Tate
Sports Editor & Assistant Sports Editor

Oakland University's women's basketball team (2-1) came oh-so-close to sending No. 24 ranked Auburn (4-0) to the Thanksgiving table the following morning with a loss hanging over their heads last Wednesday, but couldn't overcome a second-half hump as they fell to the Tigers 71-63 at the O'Rena.

Oakland had a 58-55 point lead with 4:43 remaining in the game, but Tiger Tamela McCorvey nailed a 3-pointer with 3:45 remaining and the Golden Grizzlies just couldn't recover.

The young Golden Grizzlies played well against Auburn and their star guard DeWanna Bonner, who is second in the Southeastern Conference in both scoring and rebounding and finished the night with a double-double with 22 points and 12 rebounds. OU sophomore Meslissa Jeltema, in only her fourth career start, tallied a double-double of her own, with career highs in points and rebounds with 21 points and 11 boards.

“To have a lead and to play that well and not come out with the victory is very frustrating,” head coach Beckie Francis said. “I was very, very proud of our young ladies.”