Kangas' 39 Pushes OU Past IPFW, 93-88

Jan. 17, 2009

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - Senior Erik Kangas scored a career-high 39 points, going 8-for-13 from long range, junior Johnathon Jones scored 20 points with eight assists, and sophomore Will Hudson finished with a career-high 16 points with nine rebounds to lead Oakland University (11-9, 4-3) past IPFW (7-11, 2-5) in Summit League men's basketball action on Saturday inside the War Memorial Coliseum.

"It's a good win for us and one that we had to have if we were going to stay in this race," said OU coach Greg Kampe. "He (Erik Kangas) really had it going tonight. The thing that I like is he was really looking for it. We put a few things in for him, and he really liked the new things we put in for him."

Oakland led the entire game and began with a dunk by sophomore Keith Benson right off the tip, who ended the game with nine points. The Grizzlies jumped out on top 7-2 run and ended the half with a 6-0 run to lead by 11 after 20 minutes, 43-32.

The Grizzlies continued their hot shooting in the second half, finishing with a mark of 67 percent (16-24) in the final 20 minutes. OU would take its biggest lead over the Mastodons at the 6:03 minute mark on a pair of Kangas free throws to push it to 13 points, 74-61.

The Golden Grizzlies would keep the game at double digits for most of the final six minutes, with IPFW knocking down three 3-pointers in the final minute to get as close as five at the end of the game.

Leading the Mastodons on the scoreboard was sophomore Ben Botts with 22 points. Fellow OU player and transfer senior David Carson finished with 21 points, while junior Nick Daniels had 17 and sophomore Zach Placekemeier tallied 12 for IPFW.

Kangas moved into eighth all-time in league history with 279 treys. Jones pushed his career assist total to 426, moving up the league's all-time list to 15th. Kangas also tied a career-high with eight 3-pointers in a single game.

The Golden Grizzlies reached season-highs with 33 field goals, field goal percentage .589 (33-56) and three-point field goal percentage .522 (12-23). OU also moves to 6-0 when they shoot 40 percent or better from long range and 8-1 when the Golden Grizzlies lead at the half.

Oakland will host a pair of Summit League games this weekend inside the Athletics Center O'Rena. The Grizzlies will take on IUPUI this Thursday night at 7 p.m. and Western Illinois on Saturday at 6 p.m. The Golden Grizzlies-Jaguars game will be regionally televised on FSN Detroit.

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