KEVIN HUDSON | SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER
Without the services of Derick Nelson, last season’s top scorer and rebounder, Oakland has had to scramble to find effective new combinations on the floor. Add to that the foul trouble that Keith Benson and Dan Waterstradt got in Monday and you would think the Grizzlies might just call it a night.
“We lost (Nelson) the day before we left, so it’s not like we had time to figure out what we’re going to do. Then we had foul trouble tonight … We’re using combinations that we didn’t even dream that we would be using,” Oakland head coach Greg Kampe said. “We went from an experienced team with young backups to playing young kids.”
Without Nelson and with Benson in foul trouble, the Grizzlies looked to 5-11 junior guard Johnathon Jones for their offensive punch. It was a bold move by Kampe, considering Jones went 2-for-16 shooting in their season-opening loss at Cleveland State.
But Jones didn’t disappoint Monday, leading all scorers with a career-high 32 points on 13-of-23 shooting, none more important than an 18-foot fadeaway jumper over Oregon freshman Drew Wiley to put the Grizzlies up 82-77 with eight seconds left in overtime.
“Same shots, I guess they just went in,” Jones said of his off-night compared to Monday night.
“You can’t tell me that he can’t play anywhere in the country,” Kampe said of Jones. “You’ve got to look at him and tell me that he could play anywhere in the country.”
His Oregon counterpart at point guard, junior Tajuan Porter, bounced back from his own poor shooting night in the Ducks’ opener to score 17 points on 4-of-6 from three-point range and 5-of-5 from the free-throw line; the final three from the charity stripe tied the game with six seconds left to force overtime.
Jones was the one who fouled Porter to make the tie possible, but his teammates helped keep his head in the game going into overtime, where he scored 10 of his 32 points.
“They were talking to me because I committed the foul at the end. They were really picking me up going into overtime,” Jones said. “I really have to applaud them for that because I was down but they told me just to keep going.”
Porter, for his part, gave Jones credit. The two have played against each other before in Detroit area AAU competition.
“Jones was solid. He’s gotten a lot better since high school. He must have worked hard in the summer,” Porter said.
The Grizzlies held on to win 82-79, their second consecutive win over Oregon and their second all-time against a BCS conference opponent on the road. Oregon now accounts for two of Oakland’s five wins all-time over BCS conference schools, home and away.
KEVIN HUDSON
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