Oberlin, Ohio – The Oberlin College men's basketball team trailed by just two at the half, but the visiting Wabash College Little Giants shot 62 percent in the second half en route to defeating the Yeomen, 70-57, on Saturday afternoon at Philips Gym.
The Yeomen could never get into an offensive flow as they shot just 37.7 percent (23-of-61) in the loss. Sophomore
Christian Fioretti did his part as he posted 14 points and five assists. Junior
Eli Silverman-Lloyd went 5-of-10 from the floor and was 4-of-6 from distance as he matched Fioretti's 14 points, but no other Yeoman reached double figures in the setback. Rookie
Ben Rosow provided a nice spark off the bench with seven points and five boards in 18 minutes of action.
Oberlin trailed 6-2 in the early going, but used a 9-2 run that featured five Fioretti points and four from
Charles Tiedemann to give Oberlin an 11-8 cushion at the 14:11 mark. Later in the half, a triple-hit from Silverman-Lloyd made it a 20-14 Yeomen advantage with 6:51 left in the frame. However, the Little Giants would halt the Yeomen spurt and answer back with a 13-5 run of their own as they carried a 27-25 cushion into the intermission.
The Little Giants used that momentum coming out of the locker room, hitting on three 3-pointers within the first 3:30 of the half to balloon their lead out to 40-28 with 16:26 left to play.
Wabash would lead by as many as 15 multiple times throughout the second half and ultimately increased the margin out to 17, 66-49, at the 2:55 mark. Back-to-back threes from Fioretti and Silverman-Lloyd would get the Yeomen to within 11, but the final outcome was never in doubt.
Oberlin outscored Wabash 30-26 in the paint, had a 19-10 advantage in bench points, and ended with a 15-5 margin in points off of turnovers. However, Wabash won the battle of the boards, 38-31.
The loss dropped the Yeomen back to 10-13 overall and 4-12 in the NCAC. Wabash moved above .500 at 12-11 and heads back to Crawfordsville at 7-9 in league play.
Oberlin will go for the season sweep of Allegheny College on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. In the first meeting at Philips Gym on January 17, Oberlin prevailed 76-61.
