ROCHESTER, Mich. – In front of an announced crowd of 720 and with alumni from five different decades of Golden Grizzlies women's basketball present to take part in a halftime ceremony, Oakland picked up a 71-60 Salute to Service Veterans Day Weekend victory over the Central Michigan Chippewas on Saturday, November 12 at the O'rena.

The Golden Grizzlies moved to 2-0, having previously defeated another Mid-American Conference (MAC) foe, the Akron Zips, in their Monday, November 7 season-opener. Central Michigan, meanwhile, is now 0-2.

One of four Oakland players in double figures, senior Breanne Beatty led all scorers with 16 points and was followed by a trio of Golden Grizzlies who all finished with 12 points in sophomore Kennedie Montue and juniors Alexis Johnson and Linda Van Schaik. Graduate student point guard Raquel Ferrer-Bernad narrowly missed making it five in double-digits, ending up with nine.

Freshman Sydney Harris scored a team-high 12 for Central Michigan, with graduate student Jahari Smith pitching in 11.

Although the final score ended up similar to Monday's 74-67 outcome, Saturday's action had a much more defensive, physical feel, as the two teams combined for just 55 points in the first half and there were a total of 51 fouls called in the game – 31 on the Chippewas, 20 on Oakland.

Leading by one, 28-27, after 20 minutes, the Golden Grizzlies took control in the second half, outscoring Central Michigan by ten, 43-33.

"That's what I told the team afterwards, we've got a team that we're going to have to have games where we win ugly," head coach Jeff Tungate shared.

"We didn't play our best basketball, especially that first half – I can't remember the last time an Oakland team has had one assist at halftime. We just weren't moving the ball. We came out in the second half and started moving the ball, sharing the ball, and had nine assists that second half.

"The thing I'm impressed with our team is we're finding a way to get to the free throw line, we've been to line 64 times in two games now. That's a great stat for us to be able to get to the line and find ways to win. Again, it wasn't the prettiest, but I thought our defense was outstanding. I thought we did a really good job defending; we, obviously, had a huge size disadvantage.

"We're going to give up shots with them, that kind of size, I mean, we can't match 6-foot-5, but I thought for the most part, we did a pretty solid job on the defensive end, so I was pretty happy with that."

The 6-foot-5 Tungate is referencing came in the form of Virginia native and junior Rochelle Norris, who gave Central Michigan nine points and three rebounds in 11 minutes off the bench. To counteract this, Oakland presented Norris with a series of different defensive looks whenever she would catch an entry feed in the post, with Johnson, Beatty and even freshman Lianna Baxter for five minutes to be physical and match her down low.

For Johnson, this was her second-straight strong showing, as the Marshall Thundering Herd transfer and Southfield A&T graduate has recorded 24 points and 13 rebounds in her 53 minutes off the bench this season. She nearly registered a double-double Saturday, winding up one board shy with nine.

Shooting 58.8 percent (10-for-17) though the first two contests, including 1-for-3 from 3-point range, Johnson's seamless early transition to Rochester has seemingly given Tungate and his coaching staff of Crystal Davis, Deanna Richard and Tim Webb another option to rely on when searching for some scoring punch.

Having this stable of players five, even six deep that can step up and score in a variety of roles is a great situation for the Golden Grizzlies to be in, but one that takes a bit of playing it as you go to identify that day's hot hand.

"That's the thing, take the first half to determine whose night it is and then we play then in the second half a little more than the others," Tungate said with a laugh.

"It's nice to know we're not depending on one person to have to have a great game, we've got multiple people that can step up for us. Like I said last game, every quarter it was someone different and that was kind of the case again tonight."

Up next, Oakland will hit the road for the first time in the 2022-23 season, traveling to East Lansing to battle the Big Ten Conference's (B1G) Michigan State Spartans on Tuesday, November 15 at 7 p.m.

Coached by 16-year veteran Suzy Merchant, who played for the Chippewas and was an assistant at Oakland from 1992-95, Michigan State is 2-0 this season and plays the Western Michigan Broncos on Sunday, November 13 at 3 p.m. at the Breslin Center.

"I want to play the best we can and find out where we're at and make some adjustments before we start league play," Tungate said of the upcoming clash with the Spartans.

"It'll be a great environment for us going into the Breslin, we'll see how we respond to it, and then we turn that around and play Illinois a few days later, so it'll be good for us and it'll be a good test to see what we need to improve."

The Golden Grizzlies' tilt with Michigan State will air live on BTN+ and the Live Stats can be accessed here.