Oakland basketball loses to N.C. State in OT in NCAA tournament: 'Hard because it's over'

PITTSBURGH — All good things must come to an end. Oakland basketball's magical run did just that on Saturday.

The 14-seed Golden Grizzlies fell to 11-seed N.C. State, 79-73 in overtime at PPG Paints Arena in the second round of the NCAA tournament, just 48 hours after becoming the early darlings of the tournament by knocking off 3-seed Kentucky.

"A lot different than a couple nights ago," OU coach Greg Kampe said. "It's hard because it's over."

Trey Townsend and Jack Gohlke stole the show in the second half. Townsend, the Horizon League Player of the Year, finished with 30 points and 13 rebounds, while Gohlke scored 22 points and eight rebounds as he made six of 17 3-pointers.

But it wasn't enough to overcome the 6-foot-10, 275-pound DJ Burns, who put up 24 points, 10 rebounds and four assists, or his quartet of teammates that also scored in double figures: Michael O'Connell had 12, while Mohamed Diarra, DJ Horne and Casey Morsell finished with 11 apiece.

"That guy was a load down there," Townsend said of Burns. "We did everything we could. It just didn’t bounce our way."

Bonus basketball

With the game tied at 66 entering the extra period, Townsend got the scoring started when he split a pair of free throws, but there was Burns on the other end making a finger-roll layup.

After a pair of Townsend free throws gave Oakland the lead, 69-68, Burns got an offensive rebound on a missed 3-pointer from the short corner and his putback gave N.C. State a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

"I don't think that ball even got 10-feet-2 in the air," Kampe said. "It hits right in front of the rim, comes right down to the big guy and he lays it in. We were fronting the big guy, the only rebound he'd get is if it hit the rim and came straight down.

"Those are the bounces of the game."

After a turnover on a pass from DQ Cole to Townsend, DJ Horne made a mid-range jumper with 1:33 to go up three. Blake Lampman responded with a free throw to get back within two, but Jayden Taylor hit the dagger 3-pointer from the right corner with 1:13 left to go up five.

Burns made four straight free throws to go up, 79-70, with 17 seconds to play, before Cole made a 3-pointer to get Oakland back within six with 13 seconds to play.

The Grizzlies forced a turnover, but Gohlke missed his third straight 3-pointer short as the clock struck midnight on Oakland's run.

"We've done a tremendous job this whole season of executing late game and today we just didn't do as good of a job," Gohlke said. "Give N.C. State credit, they were a really good defensive team today and disrupted some of the things we wanted to do, especially on the last possession (of overtime).

"It comes down to those slim margins in the final minutes of the game. They went our way in the Kentucky game because we executed well; today, we gave it all our effort, but N.C. State made the plays at the right times."

The final minutes (we thought)

Oakland, which trailed for the first 37 minutes of the game, was down by four with less than 4 minutes to go when Gohlke caught the ball on the left wing and his pump fake made the defender fall, before he casually drilled his sixth 3-pointer of the game.

On the next possession Townsend completed a three-point play to give Oakland its the first lead, 63-61.

Oakland still was up one when N.C. State's Michael O’Connell hit a scooping lefty layup plus a foul, then got the free throw to fall to go up two with 55.6 left. Gohlke was fouled without the ball 15 seconds later and made a pair of free throws to tie the game at with 41.7 seconds to play.

After an N.C. State miss, Oakland tried to draw up one final look in regulation.

"The ball was getting to Townsend facing the basket at the left elbow," Kampe said. "He was supposed to rip and drive and he'd either be the hero, go to the free throw line or they wouldn't call it; one of those three things was going to happen.

"We took too long to get in (our set). They came and denied the entry pass. ... It's my fault because we had 17 seconds. We didn't want to go until 10 or 12, if we'd gone at 17, we could've handled that. That was the mistake."

Oakland turned the ball over with 1.7 seconds left and the Wolfpack missed a halfcourt heave.

Absorbing first punch

Like Thursday night, it was a slow start for the Golden Grizzlies, who missed seven of their first eight shots.

Horne needed no such time heating up. He made a transition layup to open the game, then knocked down a 3-pointer from the left wing, then a floater to score the Wolfpack's first seven, before Burns got involved with a lefty hook down low to go up 9-2.

Chris Conway added a put-back slam before Gohlke — who got a standing ovation when he checked in — made his first 3-pointer from the right wing on his first shot attempt of the game to get OU back within two.

"I know in my life I've never put a sub in and seen a place go nuts three minutes into a game," Kampe said. "What does this place seat, 18,000 or something? That was the loudest roar of the night when he went in three minutes into the game, and then he caught it and made it."

That was the only shot attempt he could get off the first 12 minutes of the game as N.C. State took turns switching defenders from Morsell to O'Connell to Taylor, who face-guarded Gohlke as he ran around screen after screen.

By the time he took another 3-point try, it came up short and the Wolfpack went back the other way in transition and got a bucket from Taylor to go up 26-17 and bring the contingent of fans wearing red to their feet.

In the meantime, Lampman drilled a pair of 3-pointers to keep OU within striking distance.

Oakland continued to chip away. Conway stopped the bleeding with a turnaround bucket and then at long last Gohlke was able to get going. He used a pump fake to get a clean look from the top of the key and drill a 3-pointer, then after a scooping layup by Diarra, Gohlke made another 3, off a curl from the right wing to get Oakland back within three, 28-25.

N.C. State led, 32-29, at halftime after making just two of its final 12 field goals, but the Wolfpack had a 20-12 lead on points in the paint.

Two-man show

Oakland made a concerted effort to feed Townsend to open the second half on four straight possessions.

After a miss on the first trip down and spitting a pair of free throws on the second, Townsend made a righty hook from the left block and then put the ball on the deck and blew-by Burns for a layup to get Oakland back within two, 36-34.

“The adjustment we made was we wanted to catch the ball off a rebound or if they score and fly it off the floor,” Kampe said. “You saw much more fluidity out of us in the second half and we were able to get the ball to Trey.”

After a Burns turnover, OU had a chance to take its first lead of the game on a Gohlke 3-pointer, but it missed wide and he did not get the foul call he was looking for. On the other end Burns answered with a spinning layup and Morsell knocked down a transition 3-pointer and just like that, N.C. State's lead was back to seven.

Townsend responded with a three-point play before, finally, Gohlke got involved once more. After the Grizzlies forced a loose ball turnover, Lampman picked the ball up in transition and gave the handoff to Gohlke who drilled the long ball from one step inside the logo.

On the next possession, Townsend finished a layup down low and for the first time since the game was scoreless, OU was tied, 42-42.

"Trey Townsend is a pro," Kampe said. "He proved it tonight."

N.C. State picked up back-to-back 3-pointers of its own when Burns passed out of a triple-team and found Morsell on the right wing and then O'Connell nailed one from the same spot to go up 51-45 midway through the half.

Townsend sandwiched a 3-pointer from the left wing and a hook shot around a Burns layup to get OU back within three, then, after Diarra nailed a pointer from the corner directly in front of his bench, Gohlke made another 3, this time while he was fouled, and the free throw pulled OU within two with just more than 6 minutes to play.

N.C. State would call a timeout and, with less than 2 seconds on the shot clock, O'Connell drilled a 3 from the left wing to put N.C. State up five, before Townsend answered with a 3-pointer from the same spot to make it 59-57 going into the final media timeout.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Oakland basketball loses to NC State, 79-73, in OT in NCAA tournament