Written by Griffin Beers
Staff Writer
When it rains, it pours, and for Oakland men’s basketball right now, it’s pouring.
The Golden Grizzlies suffered their third straight defeat on Sunday afternoon, a 93-69 drubbing at the hands of Robert Morris. It serves as the largest margin of defeat Oakland has had in a road league loss since joining the Horizon League before the 2013-2014 season.
“It’s on the coach,” Greg Kampe said. “As coaches we try to find ways that our teams can peak in February and March and we are going the opposite way. We have lost three in a row. There’s no excuse for that.”
The loss dropped Oakland to 10-6 in Horizon League play, with a now two game gap between the 2nd place Golden Grizzlies and first place Wright State. Not only has Oakland lost connection with the top seed, Oakland now is just a half game up on Robert Morris and Green Bay. Detroit Mercy and Purdue Fort Wayne are 9-7 as well.
Oakland struggled in almost every aspect of the game, including in ways that are usually massive strengths, as well as faults of the roster.
“Our three bigs today shot 25% from inside six feet,” Kampe said. “That wore on us. The other part of this was we knew coming in that this was one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country and we didn’t get it done on that end.”
The good news to come out of the game was that Isaac Garrett was healthy enough to return to the starting lineup after missing four games and the end of a fifth. Garrett’s return did not go well, as he went 1-of-11 from the floor. He ended with two points and seven rebounds after scoring 30 in the previous matchup with Robert Morris.
Buru Naivalurua also struggled, going 2-of-10 from the floor. Garrett and Naivalurua going a combined 3-of-21 is not something you would expect to see again in a game, and if there was ever a way for Oakland to get beat this badly, that was it.
Ziare Wells was an offensive bright spot for Oakland. He scored 19 points by making 7-of-10 from the floor. Wells is someone Oakland will need to be a consistent threat during the home stretch of the season.
Brody Robinson added 16 points and seven assists. Robinson has his averages up to 18 points per game and seven assists per game in league play. Michael Houge added 11 points.
The Golden Grizzlies are down, but certainly not out. Still in second place, Oakland’s goals are out in front of them.
“The goal is to be a top three seed in the Horizon League Tournament,” Kampe said. “We can probably put ourselves in pretty good position to do that if we come home and sweep the weekend. So let’s see”
Oakland faces Green Bay at home on Friday night. The winner of the game will take over second place in the conference at the time the final buzzer sounds.
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