Greencastle, IN – The fifth-seeded Oberlin College men's basketball team erased a 13-point halftime deficit only to see it slip away in the end as the fourth-seeded DePauw University Tigers snuck past the Yeomen, 66-62, in the opening round of the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament on Tuesday night at Neal Fieldhouse.
 
Junior Christian Fioretti lead the Yeomen charge with a game-high 18 points, while senior Eli Silverman-Lloyd posted 15 points in what proved to be his final collegiate game. He departs Oberlin 20^th on the all-time scoring list with 1,099 points.
 
Junior Andre Campbell scored 13 points and ripped down a team-high six rebounds, and classmate Joshua Friedkin added 11 points of his own.
 
A Friedkin triple-hit tied the game at 12-12 with 13:30 left to play in the opening half but the Tigers were eventually able to create some significant separation as the half wore on. Following a 3-pointer at the 6:13 mark by Silverman-Lloyd, the Yeomen trailed just 28-23 but a 9-0 DePauw burst ballooned the lead out to 14, 37-23, with 3:19 left to play. Oberlin would ultimately go into the intermission facing a 45-32 deficit.
 
The Yeomen held the Tigers scoreless for the first 6:09 of the second half as they battled all the way back to within one point on with a 12-0 run that featured a pair of 3-pointers from Silverman-Lloyd.
 
A string of seven straight Oberlin points by Fioretti gave the Yeomen their first lead of the night at 52-50 with 11:41 left to play. With the score later tied at 53-53, the Yeomen would go cold for the next four minutes as the Tigers built the differential back up to nine, 62-53, at the 5:43 mark.
 
A cold-blooded 3-pointer from Friedkin halted the Yeomen scoring drought for the moment but the DePauw lead quickly got pushed back out to eight, 64-56, with just over five minutes to go. Oberlin wouldn't go away quietly as a 6-0 spurt that was capped off by another Friedkin triple-hit had the margin down to just two, 64-62, with 57 ticks still to expire.
 
Following a missed 3-pointer by DePauw, the Yeomen had a chance to tie the game or take the lead in the closing seconds but they would ultimately turn it over before even getting a shot off. Nick Felke would then step up to the line for the Tigers and make both free throws to secure the victory.
 
The Tigers came into the game with 28 more free throw attempts than the Yeomen through the two regular season meetings. Tonight was no different as DePauw went 16-of-18 (88.9%) at the charity stripe while the Yeomen finished just 6-of-10 (60%).
 
Oberlin hit 24-of-52 shots from the floor for a 46.2 percent success rate, while the Tigers checked in a 42.6 percent with 23 makes on 54 attempts. DePauw finished with a slight 29-25 edge on the glass but saw its bench bunch outscore its Oberlin counterparts 42-5.  
 
The Yeomen conclude the season at 13-13 overall and 9-9 in the NCAC, setting a new school record for most league wins in a season while registering the most overall wins since the 1991-92 season when they went 14-10.
 
Oberlin will bid farewell to Silverman-Lloyd and Patrick Smith, but will still return four starters for the 2019-20 season.