Oakland Basketball beats Eastern Michigan and Emoni Bates in 2OT thriller

Oakland played arguably its best game of the season against Eastern Michigan winning in overtime by a score of 92-90.

Coming into this game, Trey Townsend scored a career-high 30 points in the Golden Grizzlies’ loss to Toledo in their last game.  He looked to have another outstanding game against Eastern Michigan and Emoni Bates to give Oakland their first win over a division one opponent this season. Star point guard Jalen Moore like Townsend had his best game of the season when he had 19 points against the Rockets and even though Oakland lost on the road to Toledo, it was a good sign that both Moore and Townsend played well heading into their game against the Eagles.

For Eastern Michigan, Bates is their leading scorer with 25 points a game and had an outstanding game against Michigan and hoped to have a big game against Oakland on the road. Another player for the Eagles that has played well this season is point guard Noah Farrakhan and he needed to play well to give Eastern Michigan a chance to beat the Golden Grizzlies on the road.

Oakland offensively played well in the first half

The Golden Grizzlies shot 51.7% from the field in the first half and shot seven for fourteen for a 50% shooting percentage from beyond the three-point line prior to the start of the first half. Rocket Watts and Will Shepherd both had nine points at the half and they combined shot five for seven from beyond the arc. Moore had a good first half of play as well with 10 points and five assists. Big man Chris Conway played really well coming off the bench scoring seven points and grabbing four points prior to the start of the second half.

Eastern Michigan after being down by double digits in the first half, trimmed the Golden Grizzlies lead to single digits at halftime

With just under four minutes left in the first half, the Eagles were down 40-21. However, Eastern Michigan led by Bates and Orlando Lovejoy trimmed Oakland’s lead to only nine points at the half. Bate had eight and Lovejoy had seven points going into the second half. The Eagles struggled offensively at first in the first half against the Golden Grizzlies’ zone defense which may have caught Eastern Michigan by surprise as Oakland had play primarily man-to-man defense this season. The Eagles took that momentum at the end of the first half and used it to trim the Golden Grizzlies’ lead at the beginning of the second half.

Emoni Bates had an outstanding second half

After scoring eight first-half points, in the second half, he more than doubled that with under 12 minutes left in the game. He made back-to-back threes shooting five for eight from beyond the arch at that point of the game. Bates ended the game with 19 points, four rebounds, two assists, and a steal.

Rocket Watts had his best game of the season thus far

Watts scored Oakland’s first seven points of the game for Oakland on back-to-back made three’s and on the second attempt, he was fouled and made the “and one” free throw. With just over eight minutes remaining in the game, Watts had 15 points and he was four for eight from beyond the three-point line. He left the game with what looked to be a leg injury late in the second half.

Eastern Michigan almost won the game with a strong second-half performance to force overtime

The Eagles outscored the Golden Grizzlies 46 to 37 in the second half. Even though Oakland scored a basket with just under two seconds remaining in the game to force overtime, the Eagles had the momentum going into the five-minute overtime period.

Farrakhan and Tyson Acuff played well for the Eagles in the second half and overtime with Acuff having 18 points, four rebounds, and four assists and Farrakhan scoring 15 points with four rebounds and five assists. However, Oakland’s Townsend made a basket as he drove through the lane to give Oakland a much need home win.