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UNLEASH THE GRIZZ

Oakland University Athletics

Scoreboard

WBB vs MKE
67
Winner Milwaukee MKE 11-9,5-4 Horizon
51
Oakland Oak 7-9,3-5 Horizon
Winner
Milwaukee MKE
11-9,5-4 Horizon
67
Final
51
Oakland Oak
7-9,3-5 Horizon
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Milwaukee MKE 18 18 12 19 67
Oakland Oak 10 8 18 15 51

Game Recap: Women's Basketball | | Jordan Nelson

Ibezim Ties Career High in Rebounds as Oakland Falls to Milwaukee at Home

Rochester, Mich - The Golden Grizzlies looked to stack a pair of wins and follow up after their blowout win at home their last time out as they faced-off with Milwaukee for the first time this season.

With Milwaukee as the newest Blacktop visitor, both teams came out the gate with a measured approach, as the entire first quarter seemed to be a feeling out period. Instead of Oakland's usual high-octane, fast-paced game, the pace was more slow and methodical.

After a Markyia McCormick midrange jumpshot opened up the scoring, Oakland went rather cold from the floor, shooting just 4-of-15 (.267) from the field.

Where Oakland excelled in the first frame was with their physicality offensively. The Golden Grizzlies were able to get to the line eight times in the quarter, but they left too many points at the charity stripe as they went 2-of-8 at the line.

On the other side, Milwaukee played comfortably at a slow pace, breaking Oakland's press defense with passing, not being sped up and forced into poor decisions.

The Panthers lived down low, scoring 14 of their 18 first quarter points in the paint as they took an 18-10 lead heading into the second quarter.

The lid stayed on the bucket for the Golden Grizzlies to start the second quarter, as they went 0-of-8 from the field to start. Brooke Quarles-Daniels was the one to break the frigid spell and a 8-0 Milwaukee stretch, with a tough post layup from an assist by Kennedie Montue as Oakland trailed 12-26 with 5:13 remaining in the first half.

A large part of Oakland's deficit was an abundance of dead ball turnovers. While the ball was touching the paint often, Milwaukee did a good job of sliding in front of the Oakland drivers and taking charges.

The defense of the Golden Grizzlies showed improvement over the half, swatting three Panthers shots away at the rim in the quarter. 

Looking for something positive to take into the locker room, The Golden Grizzlies offense awoke in the final thirty seconds, scoring a pair of buckets to close the half. Miriam Ibezim flipped in a shot from the post with 29 seconds left, while Maddy Skorupski broke out in transition and floated in a soft shot with two seconds left as Oakland trailed 18-36 at halftime.

Alexis Johnson was the leading Golden Grizzlies scorer at the end of the half, with eight points and four rebounds. Linda van Schaik, McCormick, Ibezim, Quarles-Daniels, and Skorupski all chipped in with two points each.

Ana Lutz was the leading scorer for all players, finishing the half with 11 points (5-of-6) and seven rebounds.

Oakland would need to close the scoring efficiency gap if they hoped to claw back into the contest. The Golden Grizzlies shot just 8-of-36 (.222) in the first 20 minutes while the Panthers used quality looks down low to boast a .500 field goal percentage (15-of-30).

Oakland still leaped ahead in the offensive boards, grabbing nine on the offensive glaze to Milwaukee's seven. Oakland also were able to grab six steals in the half, three in each quarter, while Milwaukee wasn't able to manufacture any as Oakland was ahead in the turnover battle five to nine.

Quarles-Daniels took the reins of the Oakland offense coming out of the half, scoring six points in the first three and a half minutes of the half, bringing her point total up to nine as the Golden Grizzlies built some momentum.

Ibezim powered through contact for a low post layup as Oakland capped off a 12-4 run, cutting the Milwaukee lead to just 12 (36-48) with 2:36 left in the third.

The Golden Grizzlies looked more like their normal selves to open the second half, pushing the pace and forcing their opponent into bad shots and turnovers. Milwaukee gave away the ball seven times in the third, pushing their total to 17 on the game. Oakland picked up eight steals in the quarter, pushing that game total up to 14 as it now created more of their usual transition scoring opportunities, taking a very manageable 36-48 deficit into the final quarter.


Milwaukee shook off a cold quarter, hitting a pair of threes and a backdoor layup to open up an 8-0 run to start the fourth. Oakland's Johnson would stop the bleeding for Oakland, hitting her patented elbow jumper for her 13th points as Oakland trailed 38-56 with 7:30 left.

Skorupski would join the scoring as she netted five consecutive points for Oakland, chipping away at the Milwaukee lead as Oakland trailed 43-63 with 4:40 left to play.

After only hitting a single triple in the first three quarters (1-of-5), the Panthers nailed three from deep (3-of-6) in the fourth to pull away from The Golden Grizzlies with a final score of 67-51.

Anna Lutz was the star of the Panthers, leading all scorers with 24 points on 11-of-12 shooting. Kamy Peppler dished out 14 assists, many to Lutz, as the tandem was hard to stop.

Oakland was cold from the floor on the night, shooting .303 (23-of-76) from the field. While the offense surely warmed up as the game went on, shooting over .350 in the third and fourth quarter. 

"Our defense pushed our second half scoring. We got a few steals and went to a man-to-man full court defense… I think that sparked it along with just hitting some buckets," said Oakland Acting Head Coach Deanna Richard.

Johnson and Quarles-Daniels fought tooth and nail to keep Oakland in the game, scoring 13 points each. Johnson added four steals and four rebounds to her stat line, while Quarles-Daniels also grabbed four steals and six boards. Ibezim also snagged 13 rebounds, tying her career high and continuing a dominant campaign on the glass.

Richard stressed playing as a team after the tough loss, saying "I don't question our players' want to win the game, sometimes we just take it upon ourselves to play individual basketball. We just need to play as a team, because when we do we are great".



The Golden Grizzlies gear up for another tough opponent, facing the number one team in the Horizon League in Green Bay on Saturday, Jan. 20 at 2 p.m.

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