Oakland City, IN - OCU's men's basketball team hosted the Red Lions of Lincoln Christian University in what turned out to be a hard fought battle throughout. At halftime, the score was tied 42-42, and with a total of 12 ties and 16 lead changes, the game could have gone either way. However, the Oaks found themselves on the wrong side of a 92-85 final score, falling to 4-11 on the season, while LCU improved to 3-3.
Needing just 14 points to become the 39th member of the OCU men's basketball 1,000 point club,
Nathaniel Schmittler scored a team high 19 points for the Oaks, reaching the 1,000 point milestone with just over 9:00 minutes to play in the game.
Donovan McNeal added 19 points, followed by 16 from
Tewon Kelly and 10 from
DJ Redding, both off the bench. Schmittler hauled in 11 rebounds, while McNeal grabbed 10, giving each a double-double in the loss.
Xavier Roberson led five LCU players in double digits in the scoring column, putting up 22 points. Josh Donaldson added 21, followed by Dominic Williams, who scored 17. AJ Field tallied 14, while Janssen Flotow chipped in with 13 points and six boards.
As a team, the Oaks made 35-73 (47.9%) of their shot attempts, going 5-16 (31.3%) from three point range. The Red Lions connected on 31-57 (54.4%) of their field goal tries, going 15-35 (42.9%) from beyond the arc. OCU went 10-13 (76.9%) from the foul line, compared to 15-18 (83.3%) for the visitors.
OCU held a 41-27 rebounding advantage, including a 15-3 lead on the offensive glass. Each team had 17 assists, while OCU committed 21 turnovers, compared to 19 for LCU.
The Mighty Oaks will return to action on Saturday, January 23, when they host the Eagles of Alice Lloyd College in the Johnson Center. Game time is scheduled for 3:00 pm.
