Oakland Cruises in Return from Break, 87-66

#HLMBB Scoreboard (Dec. 27)
Oakland 87, Defiance College 66

Travis Bader scored 34 points to surpass 2,000 for his career as Oakland turned back Division III Defiance 87-66 Friday night.

Bader, who leads the nation in 3-pointers at 4.6 per game, was 7 of 10 from behind the arc and hit 7 of 8 free throws. Corey Petros added 21 points for the Golden Grizzlies (5-1) on 8-of-11 shooting and Tommie McCune had 10. Kahlil Felder had 10 assists.

Defiance (7-1), which was off to its best start in 40 years, got 17 points from Bernard Edwards, 15 from Ryan Hicks and 12 from Mason Roth. The Yellow Jackets had not officially played a D-I opponent since losing 81-42 at Oakland in 2006. The two teams played an exhibition game last year.

Oakland, which led 44-29 at the half, improved to 64-10 in last 74 games at home by shooting 55.6 percent to 37.3 for Defiance.