Rio men spurt past Oakland City

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - It was a first half spurt which provided the University of Rio Grande with a measure of daylight.
     A second surge for the RedStorm after the intermission turned out the lights on visiting Oakland City University.
     Head coach Ryan Arrowood's squad opened up a 14-point first half lead and then stretched their cushion to as many as 21 points in the second half before settling on a 92-78 victory over the Mighty Oaks, Saturday afternoon, in River States Conference men's basketball action at the Newt Oliver Arena.
     Rio Grande picked up a second consecutive win, improving to 18-6 overall and 9-3 in conference play.
     The win, coupled with a loss by Indiana University East to St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, gave the RedStorm sole possession of the RSC East Division lead.
     Oakland City, which is under the direction of former Rio head coach Ken French, slipped to 6-18 overall and 3-9 in the RSC as a result of the loss.
     The Mighty Oaks trailed just 17-16 after a bucket by Robby Williams with 14:16 left in the first half, but Rio Grande responded with 13 straight points over the next three-plus minutes - culminated by a three-point goal by senior Eric Butler (Orlando, FL) - for a 30-16 cushion with 11:13 remaining before halftime.
     Oakland City refused to go away quietly, though, and closed the gap to nine points, 43-34, at the intermission.
     The RedStorm scored 11 of the first 13 points after the break to open up an 18-point lead, but a 9-0 run by the Mighty Oaks again sliced the deficit to nine, 54-45, following a conventional three-point play by Jaylen Negron with 15:29 left in the game.
     The pendelum swung back in favor of Rio, though, with an 8-0 spurt - divided evenly between Butler and junior Jaylin Fox (South Haven MI) - to give the home team a 17-point lead, 62-45, with 13:22 still to play.
     That RedStorm run proved to be the ax that leveled the Mighty Oaks.
     Oakland City got no closer than 12 points the rest of the way and Rio Grande pushed its lead to as many as 21 points with just under 7-1/2 minutes remaining.
     Butler finished with a season- and Rio career-high 28 points to lead the RedStorm and narrowly missed a "triple-double" by adding a team-high nine rebounds and seven assists.
     Fox had 20 points of his own off the bench, while junior Keylane Lasisi (Paris, France) and senior Eythan House (Montrose, Australia) tallied 14 and 10 points, respectively, to the winning effort.
     Redshirt junior Jaelin Johnson (Fairmont, WV) had a game-high three steals for Rio Grande, which finished 36-for-68 overall (52.9%), 10-for-22 from distance (45.5%) and just over 83 percent from the foul line (10-for-12).
     Hunter Johnson topped Oakland City with a career-high 27 points to go along with three steals, while Negron had 18 points, Williams finished with 13 points and six assists and Aamir Mack tallied 11 points.
     Mack, who shared team rebounding honors with Johnathan Claxton (both had six each), entered the game as OCU's leading scorer at just under 18 points per game, but didn't score until the 3:21 mark of the first half. Most of his nine second half markers came after Rio had built a comfortable advantage.
     The Mighty Oaks shot just under 42 percent overall (23-for-55) and 77.4 percent at the foul line (24-for-31).
     Rio Grande is slated to return to action on Tuesday night when rival Shawnee State University visits.
     Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m.