Oberlin, Ohio – The Oberlin College men's basketball team led the game for over 30 minutes before a 26-6 run by Wittenberg to end the game allowed the Tigers to leave town with the 66-56 win in the NCAC opener.
 
Christian Fioretti led the Yeomen with 13 points and seven rebounds. Andre Campbell and Joshua Friedkin were each in double digits with 11 points to go with six and five rebounds respectively.
 
A Friedkin 3-pointer put Oberlin ahead 15-8 at the 12:14 mark of the first half before Wittenberg cut the deficit to four, 17-13, with 08:06 to go until halftime.
 
Dorde Otasevic's triple capped off an 11-4 run to push the lead to double digits, 28-17, with 2:51 remaining in the half but Wittenberg trimmed the margin to six as it trailed 30-24 at the break.
 
Just over a minute into the second half, the Tigers pulled within two, 32-30, on a layup but the Yeomen would hold them off as Friedkin made another from long distance to push the lead back to 10, 44-34, at the 13:46 mark.
 
An Otasevic jumper with 11:09 left in the contest gave Oberlin its largest lead of the night at 48-36 before a Campbell field goal held the advantage at 10, 50-40, with 8:27 remaining.
 
Unfortunately, the Yeomen would go cold from the floor the rest of the way as the Tigers tied the game at 54-54 with 04:38 left before finishing the game on a 10-2 run to avoid the upset and improve to 3-0 on the season.
 
This one is a tough one to swallow for the Yeomen as they outshot the Tigers both from the floor (41.4%-35%) and beyond the arc (37.5%-14.3%). However, Wittenberg committed just five turnovers and scored 17 points off of Oberlin's 15. The Yeomen led for over half of the game despite a large discrepancy at the free-throw line as the Tigers hoisted 31 freebies compared to just four for the home side.
 
Oberlin remains home on Saturday when it welcomes Waynesburg to Philips Gym for a 3:00 p.m. non-conference game.