Golden Grizzlies Stifle Wright State 74-60 at Nutter Center

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Play-by-Play: Giovanni Moceri

Color: Harjun Buttar

Studio: Drew Allison

The Oakland Golden Grizzlies knocked off the Wright State Raiders in an away stand at the Nutter Center. The final score was 74-60.

Oakland came into this game following a bad overtime loss to the Northern Kentucky Norse. The Norse, desperate for an increase in their seeding, came at the Grizzlies with everything they had and made a plethora of three-pointers to win 99-89.

The Wright State Raiders came into this contest off a close shave with the Detroit Mercy Titans at the Nutter Center. Wright State’s offense did enough to give them a cushion, but the Titans knocked on the door with phenomenal nights by Mak Manciel and Marcus Tankersley. They needed a game to get their head on straight, and a win over the second-seed Oakland was prospectively the statement win needed to turn the ship around.

To start the first half, neither team was willing to give an inch. Outside of a great start by DQ Cole, Oakland wasn’t able to find shooters or big men down low to generate their offense. An uncontested three by Tanner Holden gave the Raiders a lead, and seemed to be an omen for things to come. Oakland’s Trey Townsend turned up the intensity and sparked some runouts for Oakland to bring the score to 13-12 in favor of Wright State. An 11:41 jumper by DQ Cole gave Oakland a lead in the contest. Both teams continued to trade buckets, with Wright State’s Alex Huibregtse finding the bottom of the net more than once and Trey Townsend fighting through contact to give Oakland some offensive relief. The Grizzlies offense supercharged to close out the half and came away with a 36-24 lead going into halftime. 

Early in the second half, Wright State knocked on the door a few times, but Oakland quickly closed it. Wright State’s leading scorer, Trey Calvin, started to find favorable midrange jumpers, which are his bread and butter. The Raiders narrowed the score to 42-39 with under 15 minutes to play in the contest. Oakland was able to knock down shots, unlike Wright State, who came up uncharacteristically often from the field and was the victim to an unforgiving rim that would not let Wright State shots fall. Oakland overcame that early scare to run away with the game off the backs of Jack Gohlke and Blake Lampman making their three-pointers, and came away with a rebound win.

Oakland will seek revenge on Wednesday, February 14th, against the Purdue Fort-Wayne Mastodons, who had an incredible shooting performance at the OU Credit Union O’rena and destroyed the Golden Grizzlies on home court. Wright State will seek to turn the tide on Saturday February 17, as they prepare to take on the Robert Morris Colonials in their third-straight home game.

WXOU’s next broadcast will be on Saturday, February 17th, as the Oakland men come home to face the IUPUI Jaguars. Gavin Smilowski and Harjun Buttar will be on the call, and Giovanni Moceri will be in studio. You can catch all the action right here or go to the TuneIn app for live game coverage!