ROCHESTER, Mich. – The Oakland men's basketball team opens up Horizon League play at UIC with a pair of games Saturday, Dec. 19 (7pm ET) and Sunday Dec. 20 (5pm ET) from
Credit Union 1 Arena. Both games will be broadcast on ESPN+.
Oakland (0-7) is coming off a tough non-conference schedule, most recently, an offensive shoot-out falling to No. 4 Michigan State, 109-91 last Sunday at the Breslin Center.
Rashad Williams led the Golden Grizzlies with a season-high 36 points. For the second-straight game, Williams was hot from long range, going 8-of-17 from downtown.
For the sixth-straight game,
Jalen Moore scored in double figures, recording a career-high 26 points on the day, 21 of his points coming in the second half. Moore added five assists and two steals.
A season ago, Oakland and UIC split the series. In the last meeting, a 68-66 Oakland win,
Rashad Williams tallied a game-high 29 points highlighted by five triples and a 47 percent field goal performance.
UIC (3-2) started the season 3-0, the first time since the 2001-02 campaign, but enters Saturday's game on a two game losing streak.
INSIDE THE SERIES
> Oakland leads 16-3
> At Home: 6-2
> AT UIC: 9-0
> Neutral Site: 1-1
> First Meeting: 12/8/73, Oakland won 76-72
> Last Meeting: 2/29/20, Oakland won, 68-66
> Streak: Oakland, 1
> Series Note: Oakland has never lost at UIC
NOTES
> Oakland is 6-1 all-time in Horizon League openers and 4-0 while opening league play in the O'rena since joining the conference in 2013
> Oakland hasn't opened with nine straight road games since the 2008-09 season
> Oakland is averaging 10.1 steals a game, tallying 71 total steals, 10th best in the country and first in the Horizon League
>
Rashad Williams ranks 19th in the country, first in the Horizon League, in 3-point field goals made (3.50)
> Williams was named Nike Horizon League Player of the Week two-straight weeks, and has averaged 34.0 ppg the past two games.
> Oakland's non-conference schedule featured four-straight Power-5 schools in Michigan (11/29), Purdue (12/1), Oklahoma State (12/5) and Michigan State (12/13) to round out non-conference play
> Oakland hasn't started 0-7 since the 2013-14 season
> Williams had 22 field goal attempts at Oklahoma State, with 20 of them coming from behind the arc. Williams' 20 triple attempts is a school record, surpassing
Kendrick Nunn's 19 at Green Bay (12/20/17). The Detroit native's 10 3-pointers puts him second in program history
> Oakland opened the season playing five games in seven days played Nov. 25-Dec.1
