Cleveland, Ohio – The Oberlin College men's basketball team put forth an inspired effort against 19
th-ranked of Case Western Reserve, but in the end, it wasn't enough as the Spartans earned a 78-66 win over the Yeomen on Friday night in the opening round of the Bill Sudeck Tournament.
Sophomore
Yuuki Okubo led the way with a career-high 17 points on an efficient 7-of-11 shooting performance.
Will Bousquette III also dropped in a career-best 15 points off the bench, while junior
Henry Lieber chipped in a collegiate-high eight points.
The Yeomen battled in the early going as four straight points from newcomer
Milun Micanovic trimmed the Spartans' lead down to 17-15 at the midway point of the opening half. However, the Yeomen offense would go cold as the Case advantage would swell to as many as 16, 39-23, at the 2:31 mark but the Yeomen would cash in seven of the final nine points of the session to cut the deficit down to 41-30 heading into intermission.
One of two Lieber triple-hits at the 15:58 mark of the second half made it a 50-38 Spartan lead but an 8-0 Case Western response run extended the cushion all the way out to 20 to make it a tall task for a potential comeback.
However, the Yeomen wouldn't go away quietly as three straight long-distance connections from Bousquette,
Cole Otley, and Lieber shrunk the deficit down to 13, 67-54, with 6:20 left to expire.
The Oberlin charge would continue as
Dorde Otasevic deposited a 3-pointer from the top of the arc to make it 67-59 with 4:22 remaining in the game. The Spartans would answer by pushing the differential back out to 13 and while the Yeomen would get within eight once more, but it was too little too late.
Oberlin shot 40.4 (21-of-52) from the floor while the Spartans finished at an even 50-percent (29-of-58) in the win. Case also won the battle of the boards 35-30 and outscored the Yeomen 30-10 in the paint.
The Yeomen are back in action tomorrow at 1 p.m. as they will take on the Allegheny College Gators who lost earlier in the day to Dickinson.
