ROCHESTER, Mich. – The Golden Grizzlies men’s basketball team heads to the Caribbean after a home-opening win to open up the Cayman Islands Classic against Drake Sunday, with tip-off set for 11 a.m. ET.
The Cayman Islands Classic, which takes place inside the John Gray Gymnasium in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, is a bracket-style tournament consisting of eight teams. Those teams include: Oakland, Drake, Loyola Marymount, Stephen F. Austin, Marshall, Utah State, Florida International and Akron. The tournament will take place Nov. 19-21 and all games will be streamed live on FloHoops along with all Oakland games live streamed through audio via The Bet1270 AM (WXYT-AM) & the Audacy App with Neal Ruhl on the call.
The Golden Grizzlies (1-2, 0-0 HL) picked up its first win of the season at home Tuesday (Nov. 14) against Bowling Green State. Once again, Oakland came out firing and scored the first seven points early but the Falcons crawled back to knot things up. Graduate student Jack Gohlke pulled the Golden Grizzlies ahead though as the team didn’t look back after he sank back-to-back threes.
A halftime lead gave the Golden Grizzlies a cushion but Oakland continued to put points on the board. DQ Cole made three buckets from beyond the arc, with two free throws from Trey Townsend sandwiched in between, to put Oakland up 20 with five minutes to play. The deficit was too great for the Falcons as Oakland took the game, 81-62.
Oakland was once again led by Townsend who went 50% from the field (8-of-16) with four from the charity stripe for a game-high 20 points. Gohlke continued his three-point field goal streak as he sank three and had a team-high seven boards. The game saw senior guard Rocket Watts record his first points of the season as he netted 10, along with Cole who was perfect from downtown (4-of-4) for 12 points.
Oakland shot an impressive 49.1% from the field (28-of-57) and tacked on seven three points to extend its team streak of 1,098 consecutive games with a three-pointer made. Although the Golden Grizzlies had a rebound margin of -3, the team only had two less second chance points than the Falcons.
SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
The Golden Grizzlies take on the Bulldogs for the first time in school history as the two go toe-to-toe at the Cayman Islands. The Bulldogs, out of Des Moines, Iowa, play through the Missouri Valley Conference and have a great history as a Mid-Major team. Drake has made a Final Four appearance once (1969), three Elite Eight and Sweet Sixteens (1969, 1970, 1971) and have made the NCAA tournament on six different occasions, most recently in last year’s tournament. The nine-time conference regular season champions are touted as one of the best Mid-Major programs heading into the 2023-24 season.
Drake (2-0, 0-0 MVC) comes off a pair of wins and has yet to play on the road. Tuesday (Nov. 14), the Bulldogs took on Southwest Minnesota State and came up victorious, 87-67, after an 85-70 win over Lipscomb the week previous.
In its matchup against Southwest Minnesota State, the Bulldogs saw three players with double-digit points with two that tallied 20+. Returning junior Tucker DeVries, the 2022-23 Larry Bird MVC Player of the Year paced the team with eight boards to go along with his 21 points while shooting 7-of-11 from the field. The highly touted guard earned MVC Freshman of the year in 2021-22 and currently leads the team in scoring with 28.5 points per game. DeVries is shooting 19-of-33 from the field (.576) to go with his 6.5 rebounds per game. In his season opener, Devries dropped 36 points with six steals and five boards. With 57 total points, he has 17 more than Atin Wright who sits behind him.
This season, the Bulldogs lead its opposition in most statistical categories. Drake only lets up 68.5 points per game while it is on mark to record 86.0 points per game. An impressive 52.6% from the field, Drake has held its opponents to 44.9% from the floor and out-rebound who it faces by 3.5.
Tip-off from the John Gray Gymnasium is slated for 11 a.m. ET, Sunday, Nov. 19. Following, the Golden Grizzlies will play either Stephen F. Austin or Loyola Marymount at 11 a.m. ET or 1:30 p.m. ET.
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