Box Score

Cleveland, Ohio – Bryan Erce's 3-pointer as time expired left the Oberlin College men's basketball team on the wrong side of a hard-fought 55-52 contest against Case Western Reserve on Saturday afternoon.

Oberlin had the ball with under 20 seconds to play, but a steal by Reid Anderson setup the game-winning shot to send the Yeomen home heartbroken.

“What can you say, we just didn't do a good job of finishing the game,” Head Coach Isaiah Cavaco said. “It is disappointing to fight so hard and to just let it slip away at the end like that really hurts.”

Sophomore Josh Merritt scored a career-high 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting – including 3-of-3 from long range to guide the Oberlin offense. Junior Ryan Magiera added 14 points, while freshman Andrew Fox completed the trio double-digit scorers with 13 points to go along with 11 rebounds for his second-career double-double.

The Yeomen (4-7) came out of the gates scorching hot as they built a 19-3 lead 11 minutes into the contest, however the Spartans (8-3) fought back to narrow the gap to just 11 at the break, 31-20.

Oberlin held a 44-32 advantage with 11:14 left to play, but Case responded with a 19-5 run over the next eight minutes to grab a 51-49 advantage with 3:16 remaining in the game. A Merritt a triple-hit at 2:47 would put the Yeomen back on top, but they would go scoreless the rest of the way to help the Spartans steal the win.

The Yeomen shot 40.4-percent (19-of-47), while Spartans checked in at just 35.3-percent (18-of-51).

Oberlin will look to regroup when it plays its third of five straight road games on Wednesday night at Denison. Tip-time is set for 7:30 p.m.