Nov. 28, 2009

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ROCHESTER, Mich. - Junior Keith Benson grabbed a career-high 18 rebounds, adding a game-high 24 points and seven blocks for his third double-double of the season, and senior Johnathon Jones posted a double-double with 13 points and 11 assists, breaking the all-time Summit League record (637), to lead the Oakland University men's basketball team (3-3) to an 83-75 win over Central Arkansas (1-5) on Saturday night inside the Athletics Center O'Rena.

"I think the bigger thing is for this to become a good basketball team, and you're playing a team that is probably nowhere near the talent that you have," said OU coach Greg Kampe. "You're blowing them out, substituting a lot in the first half, and that had a lot to do with them getting back into the game."

Jones, a native of Okemos, Mich., surpassed Valparaiso's Bryce Drew on the league all-time list which was 626. His double-double was the seventh of his career.

Senior Derick Nelson tallied 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while junior Will Hudson scored 11 points and had six boards. Freshman Ledrick Eackles posted a career-high eight points and sophomore Drew Maynard added eight points off the bench.

Leading the Bears in scoring was junior Chris Poellnitz with 24 points. Sophomore Mike Pouncy tallied 16 points and senior Mitch Rueter had 11 points to round out double figure scoring for UCA.

The Golden Grizzlies controlled the entire first half as they stormed out to a commanding 18-point lead (38-20) with less than seven minutes left until halftime. After shooting close to 70 percent throughout the opening 20 minutes, the Golden Grizzlies fell a little cold before the half, but still shot over 50 percent and had a 50-34 lead at the break.

The Bears started the second half with a 9-2 run and climbed back into the game at 52-43. Oakland pushed the lead back to 14 points (57-43) with 14:29 left in the game, but Central Arkansas continued to keep fighting and used a 13-3 run to get as close as four points, 69-65, with 4:58 on the clock.

"We had some veteran players make so huge mistakes, so I made some substitutions when I got mad at them. You can blame me for that, but I think in the end, it will help make us a better basketball team because that's my job; to make us the best basketball team I can," said Kampe.

The Golden Grizzlies push the lead back up to seven points and kept that distance from the Bears through the final three minutes, making 7-of-9 free throws in the final minute to win by eight points.

OU will travel to Memphis this Monday night to face the Tigers at FexExForum. Game time is set for 8 p.m. ET and will air on OU's flagship station WDFN-AM (1130) with Mario Impemba (play by play) and Neal Ruhl (color).

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