Rochester, NY – The Oberlin College men's basketball team rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit to defeat the SUNY Cobleskill Fighting Tigers, 80-77, in the opening round of the Harold J. Brodie Tournament on the campus of Rochester Institute of Technology.
 
Trailing 40-30 at the half, Oberlin quickly got the margin within single digits and stayed within striking distance the rest of the way. A Jordan Armstrong layup midway through the second half made it a one-possession game at 55-52 with 10:28 left to play.
 
With under five minutes to go, the Yeomen trailed 70-63, but a 9-2 spurt that featured five points from Christian Fioretti was capped off by a layup from Joshua Friedkin to tie the game at 72-all with 2:32 still left to expire.
 
On the next trip down the floor, a deep jumper from Friedkin on the far wing put Oberlin out in front for the first time since the 3:40 mark of the first half. Three free throws from Eli Silverman-Lloyd extend the Yeomen advantage to 77-72 with 27 ticks on the clock, but the Fighting Tigers lived up to their name as they didn't go away quietly.
 
Following a high-arching 3-pointer by Joe Costello at the top of the key, Nile Godfrey would split a pair of free throws to make it 78-75. With three seconds left, Christian Cooper would pull up from long range and there was confusion on the floor as to whether his made basketball was a 2-pointer or a game-tying 3-pointer. Thankfully for the Yeomen's sake, it was ultimately ruled a two-point basket. Fioretti would then ice the game at the free throw line with under a second to play as the Tigers were unable to trigger a desperation heave at the buzzer.
 
Fioretti finished with 14 points on 5-of-5 shooting as he has now cashed in 15 of his last 16 shots from the floor. He added a career-high seven assists and a career-best four steals in the win.
 
Silverman-Lloyd led all Yeomen scorers with 16 points, while Armstrong (11) and fellow big man Andre Campbell joined him in double figures with 10 points. Rookie Ben Rosow also had his best effort of the season, chipping in with nine points on 4-of-4 shooting in just 12 minutes off the bench.
 
Oberlin got off to a fast start, connecting on six of its first seven shots to open up an early 13-9 advantage. An Armstrong layup that was setup by a nice feed from Rosow made it 20-13 in favor of the Yeomen with 12:13 left in the half.
 
Unfortunately, the Fighting Tigers came roaring back as the Yeomen went scoreless for nearly six full minutes, allowing Cobleskill to build a 22-20 cushion at the 6:34 mark until a Friedkin layup finally stopped the drought 13 seconds later.
 
A pair of charity tosses by Silverman-Lloyd with 2:24 left to play in the frame tied the game at 30, but the Tigers closed the session on a 10-0 run to take a 40-30 lead into the intermission.
 
In the 40-minute battle, Oberlin overcame 22 turnovers that led to 22 points and 15 additional shots for Cobleskill.
 
The Yeomen shot an impressive 66.7 percent (30-of-45) from the floor, but struggled from the free throw line as they cashed in just 14-of-26 freebies for a 53.8 percent clip. It was flipped for the Tigers as they went 15-of-16 (93.8%) from the line, but shot just 43.3 percent (26-of-60) from the floor.
 
With the win, Oberlin moved to 3-1 on the year, matching its win total from all of last season.
 
The Yeomen will take on the winner of tonight's RIT vs. D'Youville match-up tomorrow afternoon in the Harold J. Brodie Tournament Championship game at 3 p.m.