CINCINNATI, Ohio — The Oakland Golden Grizzlies lost their final exhibition game of the preseason to Cincinnati Bearcats, 97-58, on Tuesday night at Fifth Third Arena. Cincinnati converted 25 points off of 21 Oakland turnovers while finishing with 14 steals. The Black and Gold made 19 field goals and had four assists, while Cincinnati recorded 31 assists on 39 baskets and hit 15 from deep. Oakland added 13 second-chance points from a high 12 offensive rebounds and got 22 points from its bench.
"The score is the score — especially in an exhibition game," said head coach
Greg Kampe. "Defensively, although we gave up 97, I thought that when we got into half court and guarded really well, and we rebounded with a Power 4 team with the size and athleticism — they only had seven offensive rebounds."
Senior
Chris Fields Jr. scored 22 points, went 8 of 9 from the free-throw line and collected nine rebounds to lead the team. Senior
RJ Taylor recorded three steals and added four points as junior
Warren Marshall IV finished with eight points on 3-of-5 shooting. Senior
Belal El Shakery added six points and four rebounds, including three offensive boards.
The Golden Grizzlies spent the first half trying to work back from an early 8-0 Cincinnati start, with El Shakery getting the visitors on the board on an offensive rebound layup at 16:02. The Golden Grizzlies created second chances with eight offensive rebounds, but Cincinnati's blocks and steals limited the Golden Grizzlies to 9-for-30 shooting and 11 turnovers in the half. Senior
William Kassi hit the Golden Grizzlies' lone 3-pointer at 11:51 and later turned a steal into a fast-break dunk, while El Shakery added another layup off a sophomore
Ryder Bradley assist to make it 27-12 with 9:45 left. Fields Jr. supplied much of the Golden Grizzlies' late scoring, converting layups and free throws as the Golden Grizzlies tried to stay connected, but Cincinnati answered often enough and took a 44-25 lead into halftime.
The Golden Grizzlies could not slow Cincinnati's second-half offense, as Cincinnati shot 21 of 31 from the field, made eight 3-pointers and scored 17 points off 10 Golden Grizzlies turnovers while the Golden Grizzlies scored 33 points in the half. Earlier, Marshall IV hit a 3-pointer at 19:22 and Bradley followed his steal with a fast-break layup to move the Golden Grizzlies to 30-44, and El Shakery added an offensive rebound and putback at 16:43. Cincinnati turned consecutive Golden Grizzlies turnovers into a Myles Colvin 3-pointer and an Eric Mahaffey dunk to make it 52-32 at 15:25, but Fields Jr. answered with a defensive rebound, transition layup and free throw at 14:32 before Taylor made a 3-pointer at 13:39. The Golden Grizzlies got later scoring from Fields, Marshall, sophomore
Hamoudy Mashhour, sophomore
Camden Thompson, freshman
Isaiah Theodile and Bradley, but Cincinnati continued to add from the perimeter and closed out a 97-58 win.
Coach Kampe and Oakland will open the 2026-27 regular season on the road as they travel to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to face No. 16 Michigan on Monday, Nov. 2. Action begins at 6 p.m. ET on BTN.
How to Follow Oakland Men's Basketball: For complete information on Oakland Men's Basketball follow the team on X at
@OaklandMBB and head coach
Greg Kampe at
@KampeOU. The team is also on
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