Oakland ousts Rice, 77-70, in CIT

Reggie Hamilton poured in 30 points and Oakland held off a second-half rally by Rice to earn a 77-70 victory in the third round of the CIT on Wednesday night in Rochester, Michigan.

The Golden Grizzlies (20-15) quickly built an 11-4 lead after a Travis Bader three with more than 17 minutes remaining. That advantage grew to double figures when Ryan Bass converted a triple to make it 20-10 with 13:34 to play.

Oakland opened their lead to as much as 19 on two occasions in the waning minutes of the first half before carrying a 48-30 advantage into the locker room.

After allowing the Golden Grizzlies to shoot 57 percent in the first half, Rice turned up the heat defensively and limited them to just 7-of-26 (26.9 percent) after halftime.

While getting stops, Tamir Jackson tallied nine points to highlight a 30-15 run to close the gap to 63-60 with more than seven minutes remaining.

Oakland pushed its lead back to nine when a pair of Reggie Hamilton free throws made it 71-62 with 3:13 left.

Rice (19-16) rallied to within four with 49 seconds left, but could not get any closer.

The Owls finished the game with four more field goals than Oakland, but the Golden Grizzlies knocked down 16 more free throws (25 to 9) than Rice attempted.

Hamilton, who is the nation’s leading scorer, went a perfect 14 of 14 from the charity stripe.

Corey Petros, Drew Valentine, and Ryan Bass also reached double figures for Oakland. Petros finished with 16 points while Valentine and Bass had 13 and 10, respectively.

Tamir Jackson led the Owls with his 16-point effort, but he was just 6-of-18 shooting.

Dylan Ennis had 14 points for Rice.