Oakland City, IN – In their home opener, the Oakland City men's basketball team played Simmons College of Kentucky. Last time these teams matched up was last week in Louisville, Kentucky, the Mighty Oaks won that match with a score of 62-57.
The game that took place right after the women's basketball team barely lost to IU South Bend in the Johnson Center started off as a very close game. The Mighty Oaks were good from beyond the three-point line early in the game. Less than five minutes in, Drake Moore and Domantas Sakickas were able to shoot for three.
Eventually, Oakland City was able to grow a solid lead. At one point in the first half, the Mighty Oaks were up by thirteen points. The Falcons of Simmons College slowly fought back and by halftime, there was only a four-point difference between the teams. Oakland City was still in the lead, with a score of 33-29.
The second half started good for the Mighty Oaks; Moore was able to find another three-point bucket. This started a good run for Oakland City where the lead kept growing. The lead ended up growing to a solid 26 points. The Mighty Oaks offense really started clicking in the second half as they went from scoring 33 points in the first half to 51 in the second. The final score of the game was 84-58.
Drake Moore led the team in points, partially thanks to his success from behind the three-point line, where made three out of three attempts. Domantas Sakickas and
Tyquez Priester were both good for twelve points. As coach
Ken French mentioned earlier in the season, "with our style of play, we have to get to the free throw line." His squad did a good job of that, forcing 29 free throws and making twenty of those.
With this victory, the Oakland City basketball program improves their record to 3-0 on the year, going into the first week of River States Conference play feeling good. On Tuesday the team travels to Midway University in Kentucky for the first conference matchup. A week from now, on November 19, there will be another home game. Indiana University Southeast will travel to the Johnson Center to take the court at 3:00 PM for another RSC matchup.
