Greencastle, IN – The Oberlin College men's basketball team earned a key 66-58 conference road win at DePauw University on Saturday afternoon.
Senior
Eli Silverman-Lloyd guided the Yeomen effort with 17 points, while juniors
Christian Fioretti and
Joshua Friedkin each added 14 points in the triumph. Fioretti also matched
Andre Campbell with a team-high eight rebounds as he finished one point and two boards shy of a double-double.
With less than 12 minutes to go in the half, a left-handed hook shot by Silverman-Lloyd evened the count at 13 and started a streak of eight consecutive points by the Yeomen's lone senior. A slashing layup by
Wolf Moser off a feed from
Charles Tiedemann gave Oberlin its first lead since the opening minute at 25-23 with seven minutes left in the stanza.
The Yeomen advantage would increase to as many as seven points but the Tigers closed out the half with a mini 5-0 spurt over the final three minutes to cut the Oberlin cushion to just 32-30 at the intermission.
A pair of Nolan Ginther free throws with just under 12 minutes to go briefly put the Tigers out in front 44-43. However, a 16-5 Yeomen response run gave them a 59-49 advantage with 5:16 left to expire. The Oberlin burst featured eight points from Fioretti.
However, the Tigers had one last surge in them as they cut the lead down to just five, 61-56, with 63 seconds to go, but four free throws by Friedkin and one from Fioretti put the game away for the Yeomen.
Oberlin connected on 47.3 percent (26-of-55) of its shots and held the Tigers to just a 34.5 percent (19-of-55) clip. The Yeomen outscored the Tigers 34-20 in the paint and flipped 14 DePauw turnovers into 15 points.
The victory moved Oberlin above the .500 mark at 4-3 overall and more importantly the Yeomen now sit at 3-1 in the NCAC. The Tigers, who were led by Ginther's 16 points, fell back to 5-2 and 1-2 in the NCAC.
Oberlin will now have a near three-week layoff from competition as its next game is not until Friday, December 28 when it welcomes Washington & Jefferson University to Philips Gym. Tip-time is set for 5 p.m.
