Oakland basketball falls short in Horizon League tournament final, 80-69, to Cleveland St.
Greg Kampe’s quest for Oakland’s first Horizon League title will have to wait another year, as the Golden Grizzlies were outscored 19-8 in the final 8:53 of the first half en route to a 40-28 halftime deficit and an 80-69 final score against No. 1-seed Cleveland State in the conference tournament.
The third-seeded Grizzlies, who held Northern Kentucky to 33.3% shooting from the field in Monday’s semifinal, were torched by the Vikings for a 34.4% field-goal percentage on Tuesday at Indiana Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis. Cleveland State claims the Horizon League title for the first time since 2009, when the Vikings upset Wake Forest in the NCAA tournament as a No. 13 seed.
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Oakland (12-18, 10-10 Horizon) struggled from outside all night, hitting just 28.9% of its shots from behind the 3-point arc; Rashad Williams and Jalen Moore had particularly tough nights, going 5-for-17and 2-for-6, respectively, from deep. Moore shot 10-for-11 from the free throw line to lead the Golden Grizzlies with 22 points despite missing six of his 11 shots, while Williams finished with 15 points. Moore added seven assists and freshman Micah Parrish just missed a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds.
Torrey Patton led the Vikings with 23 points and added 10 rebounds and four assists. Ty Gomillion added 16 points (on 8-for-16 shooting) and 13 rebounds.
Big Ten women’s tournament
No. 12-seed Illinois 57, No. 13 Wisconsin 42: The Badgers held the Illni scoreless for the first seven minutes on Tuesday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis en route to a 24-2 lead after the first quarter. Imani Lewis’s free throws with 2:53 remaining in the quarter were the only points for Wisconsin (5-19, 2-18 Big Ten) in the quarter. Lewis finished with 11 points (despite a 4-for-13 shooting performance) and 11 rebounds to lead the Badgers. Sydney Hilliard also had 11 points on a 5-for-21 evening. Aaliyah Nye led Illinois (5-17, 2-16) with 17 points while Kennedi Myles had 12 points and 11 rebounds. Penn State advances to face No. 5-seed Northwestern at approximately 1:30 p.m. Wednesday (FS2), with the winner of that game facing No. 4-seed Michigan on Thursday afternoon.
Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @theford.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Oakland basketball falls short in Horizon League tournament final, 80-69, to Cleveland St.
