On March 15, 2005 the Oakland men's basketball team defeated Alabama A&M, 79-69 in the NCAA play in game, marking Oakland's first ever NCAA Tournament Appearance. 

HOW THEY GOT THERE
Pierre Dukes (Grand Blanc, Mich.) hit a three-point shot from the corner with 1.3 seconds left to lift the Golden Grizzlies to an upset 61-60 win over top-seeded Oral Roberts in the championship game of the Toshiba Mid-Continent Conference Tournament Championship.

RECAP STORY | March 15, 2005
In Oakland University's first ever NCAA tournament appearance, the Golden Grizzlies made it count, defeating SWAC champions Alabama A&M 79-69 in opening round action at the University of Dayton Arena Tuesday night.

Powered by a game-high 29 points from Rawle Marshall (Detroit, Mich.), OU improves to 13-18 on the season and, more importantly, moves on as the No. 16 seed to face North Carolina Friday in Charlotte. Shooting an impressive 51 percent for the game, the Golden Grizzles got double figures from three players, including 21 from Cortney Scott (Lansing, Mich.) and 13 from Brandon Cassise (Walled Lake, Mich.).

Patrick McCloskey (Marshall, Mich.) led the way on the boards for OU with 11 of Oakland's 43 rebounds. The Bulldogs were held to just 29 boards in the loss.

Oakland showed no signs of tournament jitters to start things off as the Golden Grizzlies jumped out to a 7-0 lead, capped off by a Rawle Marshall (Detroit, Mich.) three-pointer from the right wing. Alabama A&M, however, came back to score five in a row before the first official timeout. Both teams exploded on offense in the next four and a half minutes and the Bulldogs took their first lead of the contest at the 15:25 mark when Rickey Rickets nailed a trey of his own. Marshall retook the lead for the men in black, sinking a basket from way downtown to make the score 24-22 in OU's favor. Not to be outdone, A&M came back with a made free throw and a huge three by Obie Trotter to give the Bulldogs a 26-24 edge with 7:38 to go. Cassise responded with another Oakland three-pointer just 17 seconds later to again take the lead.

It was an advantage the Golden Grizzlies would hang on to and extend to as many as six on a Marshall freebie with 5:36 on the clock. The team matched that high two more times before the break, both times on jumpers by Marshall. The Bulldogs, however, got a huge boost heading into the locker room when Trotter connected on a three-pointer after gathering a loose ball in front of Oakland's bench as time expired, sending the teams off the court with a tally of 38-35 in favor of the Golden Grizzlies. Though both teams had no problems releasing the long ball in the opening half, it was the inside game of Oakland that seemed to make the difference as the Golden Grizzlies posted 22 points in the paint in the first 20 minutes to A&M's four.

As a team, OU shot over 48 percent to start the game, while the Bulldogs shot just 34.4 percent. Alabama A&M made it count from the charity strip though, hitting 7-of-8, as the Grizzlies struggled, making just 4-of-7. Oakland held a 23-17 edge on the boards, but coughed the ball up 10 times in the first period. However, A&M managed just seven points off those turnovers. Scott and McClockey combined for a 9-2 Oakland run in the first four minutes of the second stanza to give OU a 47-37 advantage at the 15:58 mark.

With 13:22 showing in the clock, Cassise capitalized on an Alabama A&M mishap to score the breakaway lay-up which completed a Golden Grizzly 16-2 run, forcing Bulldog skipper Vann Pettaway to call a timeout. Trotter then went to work on OU, making two consecutive three-pointers to cut Alabama A&M's deficit to 11 at the 11:54 mark. On the other end, Cassise came up with a clutch trey with time winding down on the shot clock to bump Oakland's lead back up to 16. The freshman once again came up with a big three four and a half minutes later, followed by consecutive free throws by Marshall, to pad the lead even more (70-47).

A&M regrouped and squeezed the Golden Grizzlies' lead back to 15 with just over three minutes remaining on the strength of Trotter and Joe Martin. Oakland made it count at the line down the stretch, connecting on 6-of-8 from the line to notch 79 points, which turned out to be all the men in black would need. The Bulldogs capitalized on some late-game OU turnovers to reach 69 points, but it was too late to catch up at that point.

Oakland's match-up with the Tar Heels is set for 3 p.m. Friday, March 18, in the Charlotte Coliseum.