[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he bad news is that Oakland dropped its fourth-consecutive game to Western Michigan on Wednesday night. The good news? It may have a superhero among its ranks.
The performance wasn’t heroic enough to subdue its third-straight loss to open the season, falling to the Broncos, 82-71, despite the fact the Golden Grizzlies got a career-high 27 points from forward Tommie McCune.
There were positives, but Oakland coach Greg Kampe had a succinct, transparent answer for losing a game that ended on a 17-6 run by WMU (2-0).
“Honestly, we’re not ready to win,” Kampe said. “We don’t have the discipline to do what we have to do in crunch time to win. It’s on both ends. We tied the game, and they ran a cross screen to who I think their best player in (Connar) Tava, and they ran that play six times.”
“We made an adjustment on it at halftime and then we acted like we didn’t know it was coming..and it wasn’t a freshman, it was a senior. And I could sit there and say we’re young; we are. And I could say we’ll get better. But when you’ve got a guy who’s played for you four years making that mistake in crunch time in his senior year, that ain’t good.”
“That’s what happened at Eastern, and it happened tonight.”
Tava, who didn’t miss a shot when he scored 20 points in a triumph over Oakland (0-3) in Kalamazoo last season, looked unstoppable down the stretch and the junior forward finished with team-highs of 21 pts. and 10 rebounds.
It seemed believable that the Golden Grizzlies would erase the deficit before collapsing in the final five minutes. They erased a double-digit lead once in the second half. A great deal of that was owed to the good aforementioned news, a breakout performance from McCune.
On a special #BeatCancer Night in Rochester that was personal for the junior forward, Kampe likened what looked to be a breakout outing to a Superman-like personality.
“I call him The Incredible Hulk,” Kampe said. “You’ve got this mild-mannered guy, and then he turns into this green thing and destroys everything. And that’s who Tommie is…and you saw what he was tonight when he does. And then he goes back to being just Tommie.”
“And it’s his whole life in a microcosm on the floor, maturing and growing up and learning. I think he can be the superhero for us, but it can’t be a bad thing that turns him into that. But he was super tonight. He was so good, and he was the only guy doing the things offensively that we needed done.”
The home team found itself able to find answers in chasing the lead all throughout the early going. Oakland shot 7-for-19 on 3-pointers, but had several opportune ones when the lead looked to mount, including makes from Ralph Hill and McCune, who was perfect on his three attempts from deep.
Sophomore point guard Khalil Felder (5-for-14 FG) finished with 14 points to go along with eight assists and four turnovers, while senior forward Corey Petros was limited to just five points and seven boards.
Tucker Haymond and Kellen McCormick added 19 and 14 points, respectively, for the Broncos, and the two combined for six of the visitors’ nine makes beyond the arc.
The loss Wednesday mark means that the Golden Grizzlies were winless throughout the four-game series that the two teams agreed to play beginning in 2011-12.
Oakland continues its homestand next week with a trio of games for the CBE Hall of Fame Classic, beginning with Western Carolina on Monday night. Western Michigan will host Drake next on Saturday.
For interviews and post-game notes, visit Press Row Sports.
