Arena #161: Athletics O'Rena - Oakland vs. IUPUI

It's hard to believe that after 160 different venues visited, I still had not been to all the arenas in 1 Division 1 conference as of yet.  That changed today with my visit to the Athletics O'Rena at Oakland University, which served as Arena #161 overall, but more importantly as the 10th and final stop within the Horizon League.  Growing up in Wisconsin, I've been reasonably familiar with the Horizon League (and its predecessor the Mid-Continent Conference) and have always been somewhat of a fan of the Oakland Golden Grizzlies for their unique mascot, unique uniforms (names below numbers before it was en vogue in other leagues) and more recently their unique blacktop-inspired court.

Having come from Detroit-Mercy and its location in a somewhat run-down part of the Detroit outskirts, it was quite the contrast driving a mere 30 minutes north to Rochester, MI and its location near some of the most affluent towns in the entire country.  The outside of the Athletics O'Rena is fairly nondescript and blends into the rest of the buildings around it on campus, but it's a different story when you get inside and see the blacktop-colored court on which the Golden Grizzlies play.  Due to the timing of the 2 games, we arrived just as the game was getting out of the under 12 media timeout in the first half to a 16-12 IUPUI lead over the home team.  The teams traded baskets throughout the remainder of the first half and ended up deadlocked at 33 at the half.  The second half was a lot of the same though Oakland employed more of a balanced attack while IUPUI relied on the crazy hot shooting of Marcus Burk and Jaylen Minnett who ended up with 39 and 30, respectively on the night.  The game ended up going to overtime where IUPUI took control early in the extra session and held on to take an 89-85 win back to Indianapolis.

Loving the mascot theme on the entrance to the Athletics O'Rena

Impressive crowd for the day, especially coming from the few folks down at the Detroit-Mercy game

One of the most unique courts in all of D1 basketball

Jaylen Minnett from IUPUI launching one of his many deep and contested 3s

Missed opening tip, but got a second chance at a tip pic at the start of overtime!