Box Score Ann Arbor, Mich. (Dec. 28, 2004) ???C Off to its best start since the 2000-01 season, the Oakland University women???s basketball team left Ann Arbor with a 74-68 victory over Michigan Tuesday night to improve to 8-3 on the season. Amanda Batcha (Waterford, Mich.) helped the Golden Grizzlies outrebound the Wolverines, 38-35, bringing down a game-high 12 of her own, as OU recorded its fourth straight win ???C the program???s longest unbeaten streak since nearly one year ago. ???I???m very pleased with this win,??? head coach Eileen Hilliard said. ???This really means a lot to me and especially to our kids from the state of Michigan. We are a ???little-bit-of-everything??? team and that???s the way we played tonight. I thought that Amanda Batcha especially did a great job against their leading scorer and Leigh Tully did a great job off the bench for us in the second half.??? Oakland jumped out to an early 18-10 lead when Petra Manakova (Prague, Czech Republic) found Jayme Wilson (Shawnee, Kansas) open under the basket for the easy lay-in at 12:18. The Golden Grizzlies went up by 12 at the 4:04 mark as Batcha split two defenders in the paint and scored on a lay-up to make the tally 34-22, forcing Michigan to call a 30 second timeout. OU???s lead was stretched to as many as 15 points in the opening half on a jumper by Nicole Piggott (Pewamo, Mich.), but the Wolverines closed out scoring before the break on a basket by Ta???Shia Walker to make the score 39-26. For the half, the Golden Grizzlies outrebounded the Wolverines 20-17 and shot 45.7 percent from the floor, while Michigan made 41.7 percent of its shots. Oakland also recorded 11 assists while forcing 11 Wolverine turnovers. Wilson provided a strong offensive surge for Oakland to start the second stanza with 10 points in the opening eight minutes, including two buckets from long-range. However, Jessica Starling???s 11th point of the half capped off a U-M 9-0 run and got Michigan within five (63-58), causing Oakland to call its first timeout of the night with 4:06 left in the game. Piggott completed a three-point play to pull back out by eight, but the Wolverines weren???t going away quietly. The host team used its remaining timeouts and nine fouls in the final two minutes to try to gain an advantage. The Golden Grizzlies, though, held out for the six-point win to defeat Michigan for the first time since 1987. Piggott finished with 19 points to lead all scorers and Wilson added 17. Batcha added seven points to her 12 boards as well as one block, a steal and a team-high five assists. The Golden Grizzlies shot 45.2 percent for the game, while Michigan shot 48.1 percent, but bettered the Wolverines in nearly every other category, including assists (20-16). Tabitha Pool was held to 14 points, three below her team-leading average, while Starling also chipped in 14 as well as a team-high eight rebounds. Walked led her teammates with 18 points. The Wolverines shot nearly 50 percent from three-point range, hitting 5-of-11. Oakland does not return to action until the new year when the Golden Grizzlies travel to Tulsa, Okla., to take on Oral Roberts Jan. 3, kicking off the Mid-Continent Conference season. Game time is set for 8:05 pm EST (7:05 Central).