By Madie Chandler | @madie_chandler
Sports Capital Journalism Program
INDIANAPOLIS — Earl Walton, an NCAA official, hustled over to the Oakland bench, demanding a towel to wipe up a slick spot of the floor when, breaking a relative silence, an Oakland fan from behind the bench said, “Yeah, use it to wipe your glasses off!” The laughter that ensued briefly broke the tension enveloping the Horizon League men’s championship matchup between the Oakland Golden Grizzlies and Milwaukee Panthers. Oakland would emerge victorious, 83-76, behind a heroic 38 points from Trey Townsend.
Townsend, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, tallied 27 points in the second half to propel his Golden Grizzlies across the finish line.
His 38 points came without attempting a single 3-point shot, and just 14 were scored from the free throw line. He added 11 rebounds and five assists to his 55% shooting night – an all-around effort from the Horizon League’s Player of the Year. Townsend’s career high prior to this game was 30 points, and he hadn’t eclipsed 35 since high school. Oakland, picked to finish sixth in the Horizon League in the preseason polls, won both the regular season title and the postseason tournament.
Milwaukee junior guard BJ Freeman had 22 of his 27 points in the second half of the Panthers’ Monday night meeting with Northern Kentucky and started Tuesday’s game with eight first-half points. Oakland would allow him to score just two more baskets, and held him to just six points in the second half for a total of 14, on 6-of-17 shooting.
Oakland, fighting for its first Horizon League tournament title in program history, found itself in a heavyweight bout with the gritty underdogs of Milwaukee. A halftime score of 37-33 favored the Horizon League regular season champs by just four points.
“We had no answer for Townsend,” Milwaukee coach Bart Lundy said. “We went into it thinking that if we took away the threes and played one-on-one down there that…it’d be tough for them to score enough twos to beat us. But he proved that wrong.”
Oakland coach Greg Kampe has been at the helm of Oakland basketball for 40 years but hasn’t tasted the NCAA Tournament for the last 12. Tuesday’s appearance in the Horizon League Tournament title game marked just the second time the Golden Grizzlies would compete in the final, and with a trip to college basketball’s biggest stage riding on the result, Oakland delivered.
“We just won a conference of five 20-win teams,” Kampe said. “We just won the regular season. And we won the tournament. And I can’t tell you how hard that is.”
Blake Lampman’s long-range shooting was a catalyst for Oakland’s offense early in the game. He made two of his first four 3-point shots in the first nine minutes of play. He would finish with 12 points, five rebounds, and three assists, and added four blocks and two steals to the stat sheet on the defensive side of the ball. “I dreamed about this as a kid,” Lampman said. “[But] I wasn’t even dreaming about this moment now that I’m here.”
Lampman, a second-team All-Horizon League player, knew what it would take at the end of the clock for his team to win. As did Jack Gohlke, the Horizon League’s Sixth Player of the Year and the other half of Oakland’s sharpshooting tandem.
“About seven minutes to go in the game,” Kampe began. “They [Milwaukee] had made a run…and Jack Gohlke grabs me and says, ‘This is Trey T’s moment, the ball goes to him!’ And he [Lampman] starts beating on people and saying, ‘It’s Trey T’s moment, the ball is going to him.’ I didn’t have to coach. The ball went to him [Townsend] the rest of the game…and he delivered.”
Townsend tallied 19 points and five rebounds in the final 10 minutes of play.
“Oakland basketball has been ingrained in me as a person my entire life,” Townsend, son of two former Golden Grizzlies, said. “I’ve always wanted to wear the uniform and just be a part of the team.”
Townsend and the rest of his Oakland teammates now have a chance to dance as they look to the NCAA Tournament.
“The NCAA Tournament is arguably one of the top two or three sporting events in the world,” Kampe said. “And they get to be a part of it now…It’s never been about me. It’s about those kids.”
