Alma, MI – The Oberlin College men's basketball team earned a 67-59 road win at Alma College on Saturday afternoon to open the season 2-0 for the first time since 2015.
The Montenegro natives of
Dorde Otasevic and
Dimitrije Radusinovic led the way for the Yeomen as they combined for 37 of the team's 67 points. Otasevic added a team-high eight rebounds to accompany his game-high 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting, including 4-of-6 showing from beyond the arc. Radusinovic was 5-of-10 from the floor and grabbed seven boards to go along with two steals. Freshman point guard
Yuuki Okubo chipped in 11 points, two steals, and three assists in the win.
The Yeomen led 10-5 in the early going and later held an 18-12 advantage. After a six-minute scoreless streak by both sides an
Andrew Gannon triple-hit finally ended the drought with 6:22 left in the opening half. Oberlin would grab its first double-digit lead of the game on a
Darien Knowles layup that made it 24-14 at the 3:21 mark. With 1:56 left in the frame, Oberlin held a comfortable 13-point lead, but the Scots closed the half with a barrage of points – including a three-quarter court buzzer beater from Cole Kleiver to make it 29-28 Yeomen advantage at the intermission.
The second half was closely contested throughout but the Yeomen did enough to leave town with the win. Five straight points from Otasevic gave Oberlin a 38-33 edge with just under 15 minutes to go and he would later add a layup that increased the Yeomen margin out to eight, 49-41, at the 7:27 mark.
However, the Scots kept coming as they trimmed the Oberlin lead down to three with 84 seconds to go but they failed to make a field goal until the final horn as the closing moments essentially turned into a free throw contest with the Yeomen going 10-of-13 at the line to close out the victory.
The Yeomen shot 41.2 percent (21-of-51) from the floor and held the Scots 32.3 percent with 20 makes on 62 attempts. The Yeomen also benefitted at the free throw line where they finished a shade under 70 percent (16-of-23) while the Scots were just 11-of-19 for a 57.9 percent success rate.
Oberlin will be back in action on Tuesday night with an exhibition affair at Division I Kent State. Tip-time from the M.A.C. Center is set for 7 p.m.
