Oakland City, IN - In the first Saturday double-header for the Oaks, the Men's Basketball team lead off with a big win against the Ohio Christian University Trailblazers 87-86. The Oaks held a slim lead at halftime, 44-39. That lead slowly faded to when the Trailblazers took charge by 4 with 1:31 remaining in the game. A steal by
Jacob Sanford lead to a
Allen Sims dunk which brought the Oaks back within two. The Trailblazers were sent to the foul line where they went 1-2 at the line and left the lead at 3 points with 13 seconds left in the game.
Allen Sims came to the left side of the court where he pulled up, drilled the three and was fouled. He would then hit the free throw to ice the game for the Oaks 87-86.
Nathaniel Schmittler lead the Oaks with 18 points, while
Allen Sims and
DJ Redding paced the Oaks, each scoring 16 points, followed closely by
Abdul Wurie with 12 counters, on an efficient 6-7 field goal tries.
Jacob Sanford added 10, going 4-9 from the field, Sims and Priester joined in with a team high of seven rebounds apiece..
Jimmy Salamone led the way for the Trailblazers, scoring a game high 25 points, on 9-16 shooting, including 3-6 from three point range. Justin Barksdale added 23 counters, going 10-13 from the field. Barksdale collected 8 boards to lead the Trailblazers in the loss.
As a team, OCU connected on 32-59 (56.5%) of their shot attempts, including 5-15 (33.3%) from beyond the arc. Ohio Christian made 32-59 (54.2%) of their field goal tries, scoring on 5-15 (33.3%) from distance. The Oaks went 12-23 (52.2%) from the foul line, while the Trailblazers made 17-25 (68%) of their free tries.
Rebounds were 37-29 in favor of the Oaks, with OCU leading 11-5 on the offensive glass. Oakland City led in assists (23-8), steals (7-6), and blocked shots (6-1).
Next up for the Mighty Oaks is a trip to Richmond, IN for a contest against the Red Wolves of Indiana University East, on Tuesday, January 25, tipping off at 6:30 pm.
