Youngstown, Ohio – The final score certainly isn't indicative of how close the Oberlin College men's basketball team played against Division I Youngstown State, but in the end it will go down as a 71-53 win for the Penguins.
The Yeomen trailed by seven, 29-22, at the half and were down by just two, 43-41, with 12 minutes to play before YSU was able to pull away to earn the win.
It was 48-44 with 9:42 to go, but the Penguins buckled down, ripping off a 22-4 run over the next seven minutes to put the game away.
Sophomore
Nathan Cohen matched a career-high with 15 points, while
Matt Walker added 10. In all eight different Yeomen had at least two points in the game.
"It was another great effort today," Head Coach
Isaiah Cavaco said. "I thought we did really well handling the situation early on, not letting the moment be too big for us. They got off to a slow start and we played with a lot of confidence, which is something I hope to see more of moving forward."
YSU finished with five players in double figures with big man Bobby Hain leading all scorers with 20 points on 6-of-11 of shooting, and an 8-of-9 performance at the charity stripe.
Both teams played yesterday and the early-season fatigue showed on both sides as the Yeomen shot 34-percent (17-of-50), while the Penguins weren't much better at a 39.7-percent (23-of-58) clip. The two squads also combined to go just 9-of-39 from beyond the arc with Oberlin making 5-of-23 (21.7%) attempts from long range.
Oberlin will return to Division III competition on Wednesday night when it travels to New Concord, Ohio for a 7:30 p.m. battle at Muskingum University.
