ROCHESTER, Mich. – Within one game of moving back to .500 in Horizon League play, the Oakland Golden Grizzlies will welcome in the Youngstown State Penguins on Saturday, January 7 at 2 p.m.

Defeating the Robert Morris Colonials, 71-59, to begin a four-game homestand on Thursday, January 5, Oakland is 7-7 and 2-3 in the conference, while Youngstown State, voted the favorite in the Preseason Horizon League Coaches Poll, is 10-4 (4-1).

This will be the first time these two programs have squared off since the Golden Grizzlies upset the second-seeded Penguins, 63-52, at the Beeghly Center in the 2022 Horizon League Tournament Quarterfinals.

Reaching double figures for the seventh time this season and the second-straight contest in the victory over Robert Morris, junior forward Alexis Johnson paces Oakland in scoring at 10.7 points-per-game, followed closely by senior Breanne Beatty at 9.8 and fellow junior Linda van Schaik, who leads the Golden Grizzlies with 25 3-pointers, at 9.4.

These three are also Oakland's top rebounders, with Johnson tallying 5.1 per game and van Schaik and Beatty collecting 4.1 and 4.4, respectively.

Part of a two-point guard starting five deployed by head coach Jeff Tungate over the last nine contests, graduate student Raquel Ferrer-Bernad is tied with Beatty for second on the team with 27 assists and is knocking down her 39 3-point attempts at a 25.6 percent clip.

YOUNGSTOWN STATE RUNDOWN
Like Tungate with the Golden Grizzlies, the Penguins' head coach, John Barnes, is in his 10^th season at the helm.

6-foot-1 fifth-year senior Lilly Ritz, a First Team All-Horizon League selection a year ago and one of five native Buckeyes on Barnes' roster, averages 9.9 boards and ranks second in the conference at 17.2 points-per-game, trailing only Northern Kentucky Norse graduate student Lindsey Duvall's 19.

Junior guard Malia Magestro is the other Youngstown State player in double figure points at 11.9 and Megan Callahan, the rare sixth-year senior, is giving the Penguins 9.4 points.

Youngstown State is also tough on the defensive end, holding the opposition to 54.9 points-per-game this season, the second-best mark in the Horizon League.

TELEVISION AND LIVE STATS LINKS
Saturday's action will air live on ESPN+ (subscription required) and can be accessed here.

Additionally, the Live Stats are available at this link.

ALL-TIME SERIES
Since we covered the last meeting between these two programs above, the all-time series, which dates nearly 23 years to January 8, 2000, is even at 12 victories apiece.

Oakland is on a two-game winning streak in the series and has won four of the last six.

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, 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.