North Manchester, IN – The Oberlin College men's basketball team staved off a late charge by the Manchester University Spartans to hold on for a 72-69 wire-to-wire road victory on Tuesday night.
The Yeomen used a diverse scoring attack as four of their five starters finished in double figures with
Andre Campbell and
Joshua Friedkin leading the way with 18 points each.
Christian Fioretti netted 16 points, while rookie
Dorde Otasevic added 14 points.
Isaac Finestone, the fifth Yeomen starter, ripped down a team-high eight rebounds.
For the second game in a row the Yeomen got off a to a quick start as a traditional 3-point play by Campbell gave Oberlin a 13-4 advantage less than five minutes into the contest. The Yeomen cushion would swell to as many as 14 points but the Spartans slowly started to chip away at the lead as a Demonies Whitney layup at the 4:49 mark had the margin shrunk down to four, 24-20.
However, the Yeomen would finish the period strong as they closed the stanza with an 11-4 spurt, that featured seven points from Fioretti, to take a 35-24 advantage into the locker room.
Oberlin kept the Spartans at a comfortable distance for much of the second half but never quite created enough separation to put the game away. A Nathan Carbaugh layup with 8:27 left made it a 56-51 game.
With just over three minutes to play a layup by Cortiz Buckner had the Spartans within two possessions but Friedkin would answer with one his four triple-hits by rolling one home from the far corner.
Nonetheless the Spartans would not go away as Jarde Andis cashed in a three-pointer of his own with 84 seconds remaining to make it 66-64 in favor of the Yeomen. However, a clutch layup by Campbell allowed Oberlin to exhale for a moment, and after the Spartans split a pair of free throws, Fioretti would drive through the line and finger-roll in a layup. Friedkin would ultimately ice the game away with a pair of charity tosses.
The Yeomen shot 53.7 percent (29-of-54) from the floor, while the Spartans checked in at 46.9 percent (30-of-64) in the loss.
Oberlin returns home at 2-0 on the year and will take to the Philips Gym floor for the first time this season on Saturday night against Otterbein. Tip-time is set for 6 p.m.
