Springfield, Ohio – The Oberlin College men's basketball team opened North Coast Athletic Conference play at Wittenberg University on Tuesday night, falling to the high-powered Tigers, 80-68, at Pam Evans Smith Arena.
 
Junior guard Jack Poyle spearheaded the Yeomen attack with 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting, including a 4-of-7 performance from beyond the arc. Rookie Eli Silverman-Lloyd earned the start and added a career-best 12 points.
 
Senior forward Matt Walker had a solid game on the inside, adding 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting, while Zach Moo Young chipped in with 10 off the bench.
 
The loss dropped the Yeomen to 3-2 overall while the Tigers remained unbeaten at 3-0. Four Tigers scored in double figures with Jaelin Williams leading the way with 15 points.
 
The Yeomen stayed within striking distance in the early going as freshman Eric Holt's 3-pointer cut the Tigers' lead down to two, 18-16, with 12:26 left in the opening half.
 
Wittenberg struggled to create separation from the Yeomen as Oberlin wouldn't go away quietly. A 3-ball from Silverman-Lloyd had the gap down to five, 30-25, but the Yeomen would ultimately head into the locker room trailing by nine, 40-31, at the half.
 
The Tigers opened up a 54-42 lead with just under 14 minutes left to play, but the Yeomen answered back with a 9-0 response that featured 3-point makes by Walker and Poyle to make it just a 3-point game.
 
Oberlin was later trailing by four, 61-57, following a Nile Godfrey layup at the 8:04 mark, but the Tigers regained control with a 9-0 spurt of their own to widen their lead out to 13 with 6:48 left to play. From that point on the Yeomen would get no closer than eight points the rest of the way.
 
The Yeomen shot 25-of-53 from the floor for a 47.2-percent clip, but did themselves big disservice by going 11-of-20 (55%) at the free throw line.
 
Wittenberg was 25-of-54 shooting (46.3%), which included a 10-of-20 performance from 3-point range. The Tigers, who won the rebounding battled 40-28, also shot 74.1-percent at the charity stripe with 20 makes on 27 attempts.
 
Oberlin will be back in action on Sunday afternoon at Earlham College. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m.