Oberlin, Ohio – The Oberlin College men's basketball team took to the court for the first time in nearly three weeks, gutting out a 65-53 win against the visiting Washington & Jefferson College Presidents on Saturday afternoon to open the annual Oberlin Holiday Classic.
The Yeomen were led by
Andre Campbell and
Eli Silverman-Lloyd as they each scored 14 points to go along with five rebounds.
Charles Tiedemann chipped in eight points, while
Christian Fioretti led the rebounding effort with seven.
In the first half the long layoff certainly appeared to play a role in the Yeomen's sluggish start as Oberlin shot just 32.1 percent (9-of-28) from the floor, which included a 0-of-11 showing from beyond the arc.
Oberlin had an early 10-2 cushion and later held a 15-6 advantage before the Presidents began to chip away at the lead and ultimately tied the game with a 9-0 burst. With the score even at 18-18, W&J would get back-to-back threes from Zach Queen to grab a 24-19 lead at the 3:23 mark before settling for a 32-28 margin at the intermission.
However, it was a different story for the Yeomen in the second half as they held the Presidents to just four points through the first 11:36 of the session while building up a 15-point lead. Silverman-Lloyd would cash in the Yeomen's first 3-pointer of the game with 7:05 left on the clock to make it a 56-39 Oberlin lead and leave little doubt in the eventual outcome.
The Yeomen shot a much-improved 54.2 percent (13-of-24) clip in the second half and finished the game 19-of-22 (86.4%) at the free throw line. Their stingy defense also held W&J to a 32 percent (8-of-25) success rate over the final 20 minutes of play.
OC won the battle of the boards, 38-25, and outscored W&J 38-18 in the paint. The Yeomen also posted 13 second-chance points compared to the visitor's three and had a 23-5 advantage in fast-break points.
With the win the Yeomen moved to 5-3 on the young season while W&J dropped back to 5-7.
The Yeomen have a short turnaround as they will play Pitt-Greensburg tomorrow at 4 p.m. The Bobcats beat Houghton 74-69 in today's other game at Philips Gym.
