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Play-by-play: Joey Hayes
Color: Hajun Buttar
Studio: Gavin Smilowski
The Oakland Lady Grizzlies opened up their Horizon League schedule with a loss to the visiting Purdue-Fort Wayne Mastodons at the OU Credit Union O’rena. The final score was 84-66.
Oakland came into this game following two dominant wins over Cleary University and Madonna University, and were vying for the third-straight win, their first Horizon League win, and the fourth win on the season. Seven players put up double-digit figures in both Madonna and Cleary.
Purdue-Fort Wayne came into this game after a fifth-place finish in the Gulf Coast Showcase down in Estero, Florida. After a first-round loss to Caitlin Clark’s #5 Iowa, they rattled off wins against Delaware and Western Kentucky, both double-digit victories.
The first quarter was a back-and-forth battle, both teams refusing to give easy looks, and the Grizzlies and Mastodons both kickstarted their offenses.
Going into this game, the focus of the Grizzlies was to stop Purdue-Fort Wayne’s prolific scorers from catching fire. The second quarter was a case study in Oakland’s lack of aggressiveness in their perimeter defense, allowing Amellia Bromenschenkel and Ryin Ott to stretch Oakland’s defense out and get good opportunities for the Mastodons.
The problems in defending Purdue-Fort Wayne’s three-point attack became even more evident in the third. Leading three-point scorer Audra Emmerson matched every Oakland basket with a trey, and when Oakland deployed double teams on Ott and Emmerson, Amellia Bromenschenkel found gaps in the defense and dribble-drove to the net for easy layups.
Oakland, down 14 to start the fourth quarter, could not find a way to overcome the deficits. Purdue-Fort Wayne’s foul trouble and turnovers gave Oakland chances to capitalize and start a run, but Oakland could not find ways to put points on the board. Miriam Ibezim, Alexis Johnson, and Kianni Westbrook, trying to play physical and dominate the paint, fouled out and left Oakland’s forward depth scarce. All these problems contributed equally to Oakland’s victory.
The Mastodons will try to get their fourth-straight win against Kari Hoffman and the Wright State Raiders back home in Fort Wayne. Meanwhile, the Lady Grizzlies will get a chance to get back to .500 in the Horizon League against Detroit Mercy to kick off the women’s basketball Metro Series.
WXOU’s next broadcast will be Saturday, December 2nd, when the Oakland men take on Jon Coffman’s Purdue-Fort Wayne Mastodons.