TOLEDO, Ohio. – Oakland University Men's Basketball fell to the Toledo Rockets on the road Wednesday night at the John F. Savage Arena 112-90 in regulation.

The Rockets would win the tip, sinking a close-side corner three to kick things off on a snowy night in Ohio as Oakland would go down 5-0 off a transition layup off an OU turnover. Keaton Hervey and Rocket Watts would drill back-to-back three-pointers to reel the home gold back in at 9-6 with 17:44 to go in the half. 

Toledo would go up 13-8 as the Golden Grizzlies would have possession as the Rockets would hit a jumper from the free throw line, going up by seven once again with Oakland in pursuit as the clock would tick to just under 16:00 to go in the first half. OU would find itself shooting 33.3% (3-9) at the break from the field compared to the 75% (6-8) the Rockets were hitting early on.

A timeout would be called by the Golden Grizzlies with 14:00 on the clock as the Rockets would continue to fire off 13-straight points to go up 23-8 on the board as Oakland hadn't scored in three-plus minutes. A Blake Lampman shot from deep would break the drought once more though the Golden Grizzlies would look up at the scoreboard and find themselves down by 14 at 25-11 at the under-12 media timeout.

Bowman + Lampman = 3! pic.twitter.com/xySr65rfOE

— Oakland Basketball (@OaklandMBB) November 17, 2022

Toledo's stifling offense would continue to shoot lights out throughout the first half, putting Oakland in a bind as the buzzer would go off after the conclusion of the first 20 minutes of play.

At the half, OU would find itself down by 20 following a front half of a one-and-one from Lampman as the Golden Grizzlies would go into the lockerroom with a 34.3% (12-35) field goal percentage to the Rockets' 75.8% (25-33). Oakland would improve upon its rebound, especially on the offensive glass, from the past few games as they would edge Toledo 7-4 in that category though down 22-14 in overall rebounds.

Townsend would hit double-digit points yet again to lead the team at the break with 12 to go with four rebounds, tying Lampman with 20 to go in the game. Jalen Moore would post three assists and six points to his credit to that point.

The Oxford native, Townsend, would hit a three-point jumper to open all scorers out of halftime, hitting yet another on the ensuing possession. Hervey would do his best to bring the Rockets back to Earth with an and-one layup that sent the grad transfer to the line, making the game 63-46 with 17:30 to go in the game.

Moore would get back into the scoring column with his tenth point of the contest off a step-back jumper in the paint while Townsend would drain his 21st point of the game off yet another three, making 5-5 all game long as the Golden Grizzlies would call timeout with 15:44 remaining.

With the game at 71-55 in favor of Toledo, teams would go shot-for-shot as OU would be forced to call timeout once again with 13:25 remaining in the game. Townsend hit his career-high 26 points while converting on 6-6 deep balls from the field, shooting 58.8% (10-17) from the field as the Golden Grizzlies continued to pull UT back in.

The lead would stay steady at 15 points as the Rockets would continue to drain 66.6% (34-51) from the field, 58.8% (10-17) from three-point land at the media timeout with 11:49 remaining. 

It seemed that every time OU made a shot, Toledo had an answer as the home team strung together 10 points over three minutes with Osei Price's layup breaking the streak before Lampman drained back-to-back triples to go 3-8 on the night.

Down the stretch, Toledo would pull away and never look back even with Townsend hitting a best 12-21 (57.1%) from the field and 6-7 (85.7%) from three while Moore molded into the facilitator of the night with a team-high six assists. OU would be handed their third-straight loss in as many games 112-90.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

• Townsend becomes the first Golden Grizzly since Jamal Cain to score 30-plus points in a game as the latter of the two did it against Alabama in 2021
• The Oxford native also grabbed nine boards to lead the team, the whole squad reached 30 collectively
• Oakland shot 38.2% (13-34) from the three-point arc 
• 44 points were scored in the paint for the Golden Grizzlies to the Rockets' 36
• This is also the first time since 2020 that Oakland has given up 100-plus points. Last time was against Michigan State (109)

Oakland will return home with Eastern Michigan coming to the Athletics Center O'rena on Saturday, November 19 at 3:00 pm.