INDIANAPOLIS — The No. 3 seed Oakland men's basketball team had its historic postseason run come to an end in the Horizon League Championship game against No. 1 seed Cleveland State in an 80-69 loss Tuesday night inside the Indiana Farmers Coliseum.
The Golden Grizzlies (12-18, 10-10 HL) had four players score in double figures, led by First Team All-League selection
Jalen Moore, who had a team-best 22 points, seven assists, and four rebounds.
Rashad Williams struggled with a 5-of-19 shooting clip but finished second on the team in scoring with 15 points. He became the fourth transfer player to reach 1,000 career points as a Golden Grizzly after hitting a 3-pointer early in the first half.
Zion Young came up big off the bench with 14 points — all in the second half — and six rebounds, while
Micah Parrish finished just shy of a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds.
The OU offense attempted a season-high 38 shots from outside the arc, but could only turn that into 11 makes (29%). Williams hit five treys for the Golden Grizzlies in the category.
Oakland's defense limited Cleveland State (19-7, 17-4 HL) to a 3-of-15 mark (20%) from beyond the arc. However, the Vikings outscored OU in points in the paint, 64-18, fast break points, 22-9, and points off turnovers, 14-0.
The rebounding battle was close to even, as CSU finished with 39 boards compared to 36 for the Golden Grizzlies.
OU jumped out to an early 10-5 lead following the first 3-point make of the game by Williams. The Vikings answered back with a 6-0 run and held on to a mere 25-23 advantage at the 6:13 mark in the first period. CSU broke the game open with a 13-2 run to end the half, resulting in a 40-28 deficit for the Golden Grizzlies entering the break.
The Vikings kept widening their lead after intermission, constructing a 51-35 advantage before Oakland went on a 7-0 run, finished off by Young's three, to shrink the deficit to 51-42 with 10:47 to go in the contest.
CSU responded with a 6-0 lead to push its lead back to 15 points, 57-42 at the 8:14 mark of the period. Another 3-pointer by Young brought the game to single digits, 66-58, with 4:22 left in the title game.
Cleveland State scored in the next possession to bring its lead back to double digits, which proved too much to overcome for the Golden Grizzlies, ending the game with a final score of 80-69.
The loss marked the end of the 2020-21 season for Oakland. The Golden Grizzlies won 12 of its last 21 games after an 0-9 start, which earned them the No. 3 seed in the Horizon League Championship. OU then won consecutive games in the tournament to advance to its first title game appearance since joining the conference in 2014.
Postgame Press Conference
