Oakland City, IN - In Oakland City University men's basketball's final non-conference game of the year, the Mighty Oaks hosted the ThunderHawks of Miami University-Middletown, out of Middletown, Ohio. After leading 45-33 at the half, and by as many as 15 early in the second period, OCU was able to hold off a strong comeback bid by the visitors, winning 77-72. The win moves the Oaks to 12-17 on the year, while the ThunderHawks fell to 3-18.
Nathaniel Schmittler was the game's leading scorer and rebounding, putting home 19 points to go with 11 rebounds. Fellow postman
Abdul Wurie added 13 points and eight rebounds against the undersized ThunderHawks, followed by the 12 point, nine rebound effort of
DJ Redding.
Allen Sims scored 10 counters to round out the double digit scorers for the OCU side.
James Hall paced the ThunderHawks, scoring 17 points and nabbing 10 rebounds, followed closely by Lorenzo Sparks, who tallied 16 counters and seven boards. Isaiah Brooks notched 12, while Brendan Williams chipped in with 10 points in the loss.
As a team, the Oaks made 28-71 (39.4%) of their shot attempts, going 5-18 (27.8%) from three point range. MUM scored on 27-74 (36.5%) of their field goal tries, making just 2-18 (11.1%) from beyond the arc. OCU went 16-25 (64.0%) from the foul line compared to 16-25 (64.0%) for the visitors.
OCU held a 58-42 rebounding advantage, including a 25-19 edge on the offensive glass. The Oaks handed out 16 assists, compared to nine for MUM, while turning the ball over 22 times, double the total of the ThunderHawks. As a results, steals were 16-6 in favor of MU Middletown, while OCU blocked seven shots, while the Hawks swatted away two.
The Mighty Oaks outscored MUM 44-38 in the paint, while the visitors held a 26-10 lead in points scored off turnovers. OCU's edge in second chance points was 17-15, while the 33 bench points from Miami-Middletown was above the 27 scored by the Oaks bench.
The Oakland City University men will be back in action on Saturday, when they host the Grenadiers of IU Southeast for the final regular season River States Conference game. A win will move the Oaks into third place in the west division, while a loss will leave them in fourth headed into the RSC tournament. Seniors
Nathaniel Schmittler and
Jacob Sanford will be recognized for their outstanding careers in the blue and white.
