Oberlin, Ohio – The Oberlin College men's basketball team honored its five senior members prior to tip-off and used that emotion to build a 17-point halftime lead only to see it fade away in the end as the visiting DePauw University Tigers rallied to defeat the Yeomen, 71-68, in the regular-season finale for both teams.
 
The senior class of Zach Moo Young, Nathan Cohen, Zach Meyers, Jack Poyle, and Scott Miller all started and scored in the game. Poyle led the veteran bunch with nine points and eight rebounds. Miller added eight points, while Meyers chipped in with six in the final game of their Yeomen careers.
 
However, it was the young guns that led the Yeomen on the day with freshman Joshua Friedkin cashing in 11 of his team-high 14 points in the first half. Sophomore Eli Silverman-Lloyd added 13 points in the setback.
 
The Yeomen led 42-25 at the intermission, but the Tigers came roaring out of the break, using a 15-2 run in just 3:37 to cut the margin down to four at 44-40.
 
A Silverman-Lloyd 3-pointer temporarily stopped the bleeding, but the Yeomen were never able to extend the lead back out to double digits.
 
Oberlin led 59-50 with just under eight minutes left to play, but the Yeomen went scoreless for over seven minutes as the Tigers stole the game away. A pair of free throws at the 3:11 mark gave DePauw its first lead of the contest at 60-59 and they would never trail again.
 
A jumper from Luke Lattner that put the Tigers up 66-59 with just 44 ticks left to expire capped off the 16-0 Tiger run.
 
Friedkin would finally get the Yeomen back in the scoring column – hitting on one of his four 3-pointers to make it a two-possession game at 66-62. In the closing seconds, Silverman-Lloyd would also connect from distance to cut the gap down 68-65 with 11 seconds to play.
 
The Tigers would split two free throws and Poyle quickly got into the frontcourt and found the bottom of the net from beyond the arc to squarely put the pressure back on DePauw while making the score 69-68 with four seconds to go.
 
However, Lattner would cash in both free throws and the Yeomen were unable to get off a final shot as the Tigers escaped town with the win. They will enter next weekend's NCAC Tournament with a record of 12-13 overall and 8-10 in league play. Oberlin's season comes to an end at 3-22 and 2-16 in conference play.
 
Lattner finished with 19 points for the Tigers, but it Jack VandeMerkt who led them in scoring as he exploited the Yeomen in the paint, scoring 18 of his game-high 23 points in the second half.
 
The Tigers outscored the Yeomen 42-18 in the paint and benefitted from a large discrepancy at the free throw line as they hoisted 21 freebies – making 18. Oberlin attempted just two charity tosses, which were both makes.
 
Poyle departs Oberlin with 1,187 points, ranking 16^th all-time in school history.
 
The Yeomen will now shift their focus to the 2017-18 season as the boast a young nucleus of talent that will continue to improve moving forward.