OXFORD, Ohio – The program's first action since picking up their first Horizon League victory over the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons nearly two weeks ago, the Oakland Golden Grizzlies will return to the floor on Saturday, December 17 by traveling to John D. Millett Hall to battle the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks at 5:30 p.m.

Entering play at 4-4 (1-1 Horizon League), Oakland's break in the schedule was due to the end of the University's Fall Semester, with students completing their final exams from December 7-13.

Miami is 3-5 and has yet to begin Mid-American Conference (MAC) play. Saturday's tilt with the Golden Grizzlies will be the second game in as many days for the RedHawks, as they first host the Bradley Braves on Friday, December 16 at 7 p.m.

Reaching the 20-point mark in two of the last three, junior Linda van Schaik leads Oakland in scoring and rebounding, averaging 11.1 points and 4.8 boards, and is shooting a team-high 32.1 percent from 3-point range.

Freshman point guard Brooke Daniels, sophomore Kennedie Montue, junior Alexis Johnson and senior Breanne Beatty also play important roles in the Golden Grizzlies' offensive attack, as each member of this quartet is contributing at least 8.6 points per night.

Moving into the starting lineup in the November 27 victory over the Stonehill Skyhawks and remaining there for each of the last three contests, Daniels has scored in double figures in three of the last four and is second on the team with 17 assists this season, two shy of Beatty's 19.

SCOUTING MIAMI
Picked to finish 11^th in the MAC Preseason Coaches Poll, the RedHawks are coached by four-year veteran DeUnna Hendrix, who played collegiately for the Richmond Spiders from 2003-07 and came to Oxford after seven seasons at the helm of the High Point Panthers in the Big South Conference.

Maddi Cluse and Ivy Wolf, both sophomore guards and native Buckeyes, pace Miami at 17.4 and 18.5 points per game, respectively, with senior Peyton Scott joining them in double-digits at 10.4

The 5-foot-10 Cluse is also the RedHawks' best rebounder, pulling down 7.8 per game, 3.4 more than her closest teammate.

As a team, Miami has totaled 543 points in 2022-23, good for 67.9 per game, which compares similarly to Oakland's average of 64.1.

TELEVISION AND LIVE STATS LINKS
Golden Grizzly Fan, good news: Saturday's action will air live on ESPN3, which does NOT require a subscription.

The game can be viewed in its entirety for free at this link.

Additionally, the Live Stats can be accessed here.

ALL-TIME SERIES AND LAST MEETING
Consisting of a home-and-home in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 campaigns, Oakland and the RedHawks have only squared off twice before, resulting in a 1-1 split.

In the most recent clash, a 65-54 home victory for Miami on December 5, 2015, then-senior Olivia Nash scored a game-high 17 for the Golden Grizzlies, adding seven rebounds.

SEASON-LONG STORYLINES

NEW FACES FOR GOLDEN GRIZZLIES
Faced with the graduations of Kahlaijah Dean, Kayla Luchenbach and Brianna Breedy, who combined to average 28.7 points and 9.9 rebounds last season, the Golden Grizzlies brought in a trio of diversely talented transfers in Raquel Ferrer-Bernad, Alexis Johnson and Linda van Schaik.

A Southfield A&T Warriors graduate, Johnson is a junior forward who played three seasons in Conference USA (C-USA) for the Marshall Thundering Herd, while Ferrer-Bernad is a graduate student point guard who came from a different C-USA program, the Florida International Panthers.

van Schaik, another junior, joined Oakland by way of the Sun Belt Conference's Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks and projects to provide the team with another 3-point shooting threat.

On top of the program's work in the transfer portal, the Golden Grizzlies' 2022 recruiting class features a couple of high-upside players in guard Brooke Daniels, a Miss Michigan Basketball candidate a year ago from L'Anse Creuse North, and Lianna Baxter, a 6-foot-1 forward who starred at Oconto and is one of the top-100 scorers in Wisconsin high school history.

BREANNE BEATTY HEADLINES GROUP OF RETURNING PLAYERS
Appearing in all 83 of the program's games over the last three seasons, and starting all but two of them, senior guard/forward Breanne Beatty was named to the Preseason All-Horizon League Second Team on October 18.

The pride of Worthington, Ohio, Beatty is Oakland's leading returning scorer at 9.7 points-per-game in 2021-22.

In addition to Beatty, junior guard Sug Williams and guards Kennedie Montue and Aaliyah McQueen and forward Miriam Ibezim, all of whom of sophomores, are back with the program and are in line to contribute significantly right from the season's opening tip.

JEFF TUNGATE ENTERS 10^TH SEASON
Named the eighth head coach in program history on July 16, 2013, the 2022-23 campaign is the 10^th with Jeff Tungate at the helm.

Third on the school's all-time wins list with 106, Tungate and four-year veteran assistant Crystal Davis made some changes to the coaching staff ahead of this season, bringing in Golden Grizzly Hall of Famer and former Mercyhurst Lakers head coach Deanna Richard and Tim Webb, who has extensive coaching experience at both the high school and collegiate levels in Michigan, as assistant coaches.