Crawfordsville, IN – The Oberlin men's basketball team dug themselves a big hole and was never able to recover as the Wabash College Little Giants defeated the Yeomen 82-59 on Saturday afternoon.
Senior
Miles Gueno led the Yeomen with a season-high 14 points on 4-of-7 shooting, while sophomore
Jack Poyle added 13 in the loss.
Wabash started the game red hot, using its strong shooting to build up a 29-8 advantage 11:30 into the game and would later lead by as many as 23 at 33-10. Oberlin finally settled down some as it fought to work its way back into the game, but still went into the locker room with a 40-24 deficit to overcome.
The Yeomen methodically clawed back to within striking distance midway through the second half. They shrunk the Little Giants' lead down to 12, 55-43, with 11:36 left to play, but the Yeomen would get no closer the rest of the way. Wabash short-circuited any comeback threat with a 14-4 run to effectively put the game out of reach.
Oberlin, which fell to 3-3 overall and 1-2 in the NCAC, shot 37.5-percent from the floor (18-of-48). While moving its record to 5-1 and 2-0 in the league, Wabash checked in at 57.8-percent (26-of-45). Daniel Purvlicis led the Little Giants' effort with 29 points on 10-of-16 shooting to go along with a 9-of-9 performance at the charity stripe.
Wabash won the rebounding battle 35-22 and converted 18 Yeomen turnovers into 26 points.
The Yeomen will hope to quickly put this one behind them as they have a short turnaround with Grove City set to invade Philips Gym on Monday night. Tip-time is set for 7:30 p.m.
