Feb. 19, 2009

Box Score | Quotes | Notes

MACOMB, Ill. - Senior Erik Kangas scored a team-high 23 points, nailing seven 3-pointers, while junior Johnathon Jones scored 16 points with 10 assists to lead the Oakland University men's basketball team (17-11, 10-5 Summit League) to a 77-52 win over Western Illinois (9-18, 6-10 Summit League) on Thursday at Western Hall.

The win was OU's eighth consecutive win at Western Hall.

"We play well here," said head coach Greg Kampe. "It's a shooters' gym, but I think that will change here with coach (Jim) Molinari. I'm really pleased with the progress of our team. Johnathon Jones has 50 assists in the last four games. I don't think there's anybody in the country who has that."

Jones reached the 10 assist mark for the fourth consecutive game, and for the sixth time in OU's last eight games with his performance tonight.

Oakland started the contest on a 12-0 run, keyed three 3-pointers by Kangas, holding WIU off the board until the 15:16 mark when David DuBois hit a jumper to set the score at 12-2. Oakland would never lead by less than ten points down the stretch, and pushed the lead to 16 (28-12) at the 7:28 mark before WIU was able to close the gap to 11 (31-20) with 2:05 remaining. However, the Golden Grizzlies finished the half with six unanswered points, taking a 37-20 lead into the intermission.

At halftime, only two WIU players, DuBois (7 points) and Ceola Clark (13 points) had scored for the Leathernecks.

"I've never seen that before," said Kampe. "I didn't know it until we got in at halftime, and then my staff said that only two guys had scored."

Oakland pushed its lead to as many as 31 (72-41) with 5:35 remaining before OU cleared its bench for the closing minutes of the contest.

WIU's Clark led all players with 24 points, while senior Dan Waterstradt joined Jones and Kangas in double figures for Oakland with 10 points, also grabbing eight rebounds. OU outshot WIU 48.1 percent to 36.0 percent, while holding a 34-27 advantage on the boards.

Sophomore Keith Benson, who broke the OU career record for blocks against IPFW, added one block to his record-setting total and now has 103 career blocks.

Oakland will play its final regular-season road game on Saturday, Feb. 21, as they square off against IUPUI at the Jungle. Tip is set for 7 p.m. -30-