Delaware, Ohio – The Oberlin College men's basketball fought tooth-and-nail with the Ohio Wesleyan University Battling Bishops, but in the end it was the Bishops who prevailed, 72-58, on Saturday afternoon at Branch Rickey Arena.  

Three Yeomen finished in double figures with senior Nathan Cohen leading the way with 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting. First-year Andre Campbell added a career-high 11 on a 5-of-6 effort from the floor, while sophomore Eric Holt chipped in with 10 off the bench. Sophomore Eli Silverman-Lloyd added nine points in the setback.

The Yeomen stayed right with the Bishops for the majority of the first half, but OWU pulled away late in the period to take a 42-31 lead into the intermission. The Yeomen led 10-6 in the early going and trailed 24-21 with 6:27 left in the frame. However, the Bishops closed the opening period strong to take an 11-point lead after 20 minutes of play.

Oberlin would quickly work its way back into the game early in the second half. The burst featured seven points from Campbell as he got the deficit down to five, 50-45, with just under 15 minutes left to play. Back-to-back threes from the Bishops' Nate Axelrod pushed the lead back out to 11, 60-49, but the Yeomen wouldn't go away quietly.

An elbow jumper from Joshua Friedkin with 3:58 left to play had the gap down to eight, 64-56, but back-to-back long-range triple-hits from the Bishops swelled the margin out to 14 and effectively put the game out of reach for the Yeomen.

The loss dropped the Yeomen back to 1-7 overall and 0-3 in the NCAC. The Bishops moved to 5-3 and 3-0 in league action.

The Yeomen shot 44.6 percent from the floor with 25 makes on 56 attempts. The Bishops checked in at a 50 percent clip, cashing in 28-of-56 attempts, which included an impressive 11-of-24 (45.8%) showing from beyond the arc.

Ben Simpson led OWU with 15 points, while Axelrod and Seth Clark added 14 each in the win.

Oberlin will be away from game action until December 29 when the team resurfaces in sunny California to take on Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.