OU tops Delaware State Minus Grizzlies' Top Scorers

From ougrizzlies.com

The Oakland University men's basketball team placed five players in double figures, highlighted by freshman Drew Maynard's game-high 21 and redshirt sophomore Keith Benson's 15 points and six rebounds, as the Golden Grizzlies (2-4) completed a come-from-behind 75-70 victory over Delaware State (1-7) on Friday at the Las Vegas Invitational in the Orleans Arena.

"If I could give a game ball right now it would have to go to Strat (Dan Waterstradt)," said OU coach Greg Kampe. "He played with a lot of energy out there and got these guys going in the second half. It's tough when you don't have two of your leaders (Derick Nelson and Erik Kangas) on the floor and are playing all these freshmen now. But we did a better job in the second half with Drew (Maynard) and Cush (Blake Cushingberry) making shots."

Redshirt senior Dan Waterstradt had his best performance of the season so far, scoring a season-high 10 points and grabbed a season-high nine rebounds, just missing a double-double. Freshman Blake Cushingberry scored 11 points for the Grizzlies going 3-of-5 from behind the arc, while junior Johnathon Jones added 10 points.

The Hornets led most of the game, shooting 62 percent (16-26) from the floor in the first half and 57 percent (8-14) from three. The Golden Grizzlies then made an adjustment to guard the Hornets man-to-man and held them to 37 percent (10-27) in the second half.

"We have not even practiced that yet," said Kampe. "But we had to do something because they were getting open looks out there."


Oakland took its first lead of the game at the midway point of the second half on a layup by freshman Matt Samuels, 53-51, with 10:43 remaining in the game. Sophomore Will Hudson capped a 9-0 run by the Grizzlies on a layup as the lead grew to five points, 58-53, with just under 10 to go.

The Hornets fought back and got within one with just under three minutes in the game, but Cushingberry buried a big 3-pointer from the top of the circle to extend the Grizzlies' lead to four points and Jones completed an old fashioned three-point play to lead OU to victory.

Oakland will face Southeast Missouri State (2-3) on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. ET. SE Missouri defeated Longwood earlier 81-77.