Oberlin, Ohio – The Oberlin College men's basketball team suffered a gut-wrenching 92-84 overtime loss to the 25^th-ranked Wittenberg University Tigers on Saturday afternoon at Philips Gym.
 
The Yeomen and Tigers went into the extra session knotted at 78. The Yeomen would twice go out in front by four points but a Mitch Balser 3-pointer got the Tigers back to within 84-83 with 3:01 left to play.
 
Wittenberg's Connor Seipel, who led all scorers with 33 points, rimmed out a pair of free throws with 1:42 still to expire but the Yeomen failed to secure the rebound and paid the ultimate price as Rashard Ali-Shakir took advantage of the extra opportunity by hitting a dagger three from the near wing to put the Tigers out in front for good. Following the mental miscue, Oberlin was unable to score the rest of the way as the Tigers iced the victory.
 
It was a tight affair all afternoon as the contest featured 12 lead changes and 11 ties. No more than five points separated the two foes over the final 10 minutes of the second half. An old-school 3-point play by Christian Fioretti gave Oberlin a 76-74 edge with 85 seconds to go in regulation. After a Tigers' bucket, a pick-and-roll layup from Charles Tiedemann provided Oberlin the lead once again, but Balser answered back with the equalizer.
 
In the closing seconds, the Yeomen designed a play for Fioretti but his potential game-winner rolled out with 3.1 seconds to go. A quick inbound play by the Tigers allowed Balser to get off a last-second 3-point attempt but it sailed off target to send the game to overtime.
 
Four Yeomen starters finished in double figures led by junior Andre Campbell who had 18 points and a team-high eight rebounds. Fioretti stuffed the stat sheet with 17 points, seven assists, five rebounds, and three steals. Tiedemann dropped in a career-high 14 points, while senior Eli Silverman-Lloyd added 11 points and dished out five helpers.
 
Oberlin's biggest lead of the game came nine minutes into the contest when it used a 10-3 run to erase an early deficit and claim a 19-13 lead. The Yeomen were later clinging to a 28-23 cushion but the Tigers finished the half strong to carry a slim 38-36 margin into the locker room.
 
It appeared the Tigers were going to pull away in the second half as they extend their lead out to nine at 58-49 with just under 11 minutes to play. However, the Yeomen wouldn't back down to their nationally-ranked counterparts and would fight all the way back to grab a 67-65 edge on a Fioretti 3-pointer at the 5:43 mark. From that point on, the two conference foes seemingly continued to trade buckets as the differential was no more than two points either way heading into overtime.
 
Both teams made 34 field goals – the Tigers doing so on 60 shots for a 56.7 percent clip, while the Yeomen took 62 shots to finish at 54.8 percent. However, the Tigers were much more efficient from long range as they cashed in 10 of their 24 triple-tries (41.7%), while the Yeomen made just five of the 18 shots they hoisted from beyond the arc for a 27.8 percent success rate.
 
The loss evened Oberlin's NCAC record at 5-5 and dropped its overall mark to 9-8. The Tigers make the snowy trek back to Springfield, Ohio, boasting a 13-4 record, which includes a 7-3 count in the NCAC.
 
The Yeomen, who have dropped two straight, will look to get back on track on Wednesday night when they travel to Kenyon College. Tip-time is set for 8 p.m.