Oberlin, Ohio – The Oberlin College men's basketball team suffered a 67-63 defeat to the visiting Denison University Big Red on Saturday afternoon at Philips Gym.
 
The Yeomen entered the contest as the favorite on paper but the Big Red set the tone early and never let up throughout the 40-minute affair.
 
Wolf Moser led the Oberlin effort with a career-high 20-point performance on 5-of-11 shooting, which included a 4-of-6 showing from beyond the arc. Andre Campbell chipped in 12 points and a game-high eight rebounds, while fellow senior Charles Tiedemann posted a season-high 11 points on an efficient 5-of-7 shooting.
 
Oberlin got off to a sluggish start as the Big Red quickly built up a 7-0 lead. An 11-4 Yeomen response that featured five points from Moser evened the count at the 10:55 mark. Oberlin would stay within two possessions for the bulk of the period and would take its first lead of the game at 32-30 on a fastbreak layup by Christian Fioretti with 92 seconds left in the frame as the two foes would ultimately head into the intermission tied at 34-34.
 
The second half started the same way as the first as the Big Red created some separation by netting the first seven points of the session. A Conor Fenton 3-pointer from the far wing would swell the Big Red cushion to 10, 50-40, with just under 11 minutes to play before the Yeomen answered back.
 
Moser would cash in seven of Oberlin's 11 points during a burst that put the Yeomen out front 51-50 with eight minutes left to expire. However, Denison was later clinging to a 64-59 lead with less than three minutes to go but buckets by Campbell and Finestone trimmed the deficit to just one with 1:35 left on the clock.
 
After Denison split a pair of free throws, Oberlin was looking to tie it or take the lead but Campbell had his shot blocked and Jack Coulter would go on to connect on a pair of free throws to finish off the victory for the visitors.
 
The Yeomen shot 43.4 percent (23-of-53) from the floor and left eight points off the board at the free-throw line with just 12 makes on 20 attempts for a 60-percent success rate. The Big Red went 10-of-12 (83.3%) at the stripe and connected at 39.7 percent clip from the field with 25 makes on 63 shots.
 
The loss dropped Oberlin back to 7-4 overall and 1-3 in the NCAC while Denison improved to 4-7 and 1-3 in league play.
 
Oberlin will look to get back on track on Wednesday night at home against Ohio Wesleyan University. Tip-time is set for 8 p.m. with the Yeowomen hosting the Bishops prior at 6 p.m.