ROCHESTER, Mich. – Oakland University Men's Basketball suffered its third-straight home loss at the O'rena Thursday night as it was stomped by the Mastodons of Purdue Fort Wayne 81-70. 

Micah Parrish collected a missed shot by Oakland and flew by PFW defenders to answer a Mastodons three early as the Detroit native drained a ball from deep to go up 5-3 early on. Jamal Cain then followed up with a shallow jumper off the elbow as the Mastodons hit another triple just before 16 minutes remaining.

Cain completed the and-one shot out of the media timeout at 13:34 as PFW answered with a deep ball, the Mastodons' third early on. The Mastodon's would tie it up at 18-18 on a 8-0 scoring run before Jalen Moore would pick up a PFW mishandle to retake the edge as the visitors would steal it back with a quick three.

Both teams would exchange blows as the lead would change four times as the game ticked to 5:24. Oakland would crawl back into the Mastodons lead as Parrish would capitalize off of a PFW turnover with the visiting black jerseys hitting 53.6% (15-28) from the field.

Oakland would call a timeout with 19.5 seconds to go in the first half down by nine at 40-31 as the Golden Grizzlies couldn't come up with any points as the buzzer would sound. Moore led all scorers with 12 points, four rebounds, and two assists at the break while Parrish was just behind with nine points.

As a team, OU was being outshot from the field 42.4% (14-33) to 50% (16-32) while PFW was 41.7% (7-17) from deep as the Golden Grizzlies would only hit one of their 10 three-point attempts. 

Just as the first half, PFW hit a deep ball coming out of the break with Blake Lampman stopping the bleeding to bring the Mastodons lead down to 13. Things would stay much the same as OU could never seem to break through with PFW hitting 52% (11-21) from the three-point line. 

Lampman would once again put Oakland back within ten coming off a long-range jumper with Parrish following suit from a close-side corner triple with the game at 60-50. With ten minutes to go in the game, OU could do nothing to stop the triple threat of PFW as the Mastodons would lead 67-53.

The Mastodons were shooting 55.2% (16-29) from three with Oakland down 73-55 at the under eight media timeout. Cain would secure his 14th double-double of the season on a rebound with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Oakland would shoot 41.8% (23-55) from the field down 77-59 at the last media timeout of the game before Will Shepherd would get into the scoring column with a deep shot. The game would go back-and-forth down the floor as the final horn went off over The Blacktop.

Moore finished with a game-high 19 points while Parrish was just shy with 18. The only other Golden Grizzly in double-digit scoring was Cain who had 12 points and also led the squad in rebounds with 14. 

PFW would hit 16 of 34 (47.1%) from range to effectively hand Oakland its seventh Horizon League loss. The Mastodons outrebounded Oakland 33-30 while the Golden Grizzlies did turn it over less than PFW (12 to 16), for 14 steals to five for 23 points off those turnovers. 

The regular season will conclude on Saturday, February 26 at 3:00 p.m. as Oakland hosts first-place Cleveland State at the Athletics Center O'rena.