Oberlin, Ohio – Dorde Otasevic and
Dimitrije Radusinovic combined for 49 points to lead the Oberlin College men's basketball team a 71-57 victory over the visiting DePauw University Tigers to celebrate Senior Day in style on Saturday afternoon at Philips Gym.
Prior to tip-off, senior
Wolf Moser was honored for his commitment to the program over the last four years. The Sewickley, Pennsylvania, native netted six points and dished out four assists in the victory, which snapped an eight-game skid for the Yeomen as their last triumph came on January 8 against Kenyon (82-69).
Radusinovic led all scorers with a career-high 26 points on 11-of-16 shooting to accompany his game-high seven rebounds. Ostasevic, Radusinovic's fellow countryman from Montenegro, finished with 23 tallies on 11-of-15 shooting.
The Yeomen held the Tigers scoreless for the first 6:10 of the game as they led 10-0 before an Elijah Hales 3-pointer finally got visitors on the board. However, the comfortable lead would eventually evaporate as Cooper Mixon's long-range connection leveled the count at 17-17 with 7:07 left to play in the opening half.
Back-to-back finishes inside for Otasevic gave Oberlin a four-point edge but no more than two scores would ever separate the foes for the remaining of the opening stanza. One of nine first-half triple-hits by the Tigers gave them a brief 25-23 lead but Radusinovic answered back with a corner 3-ball of his own to put Oberlin back out front as they ultimately carried a 33-31 lead into the intermission and would never trail again.
Following the restart, the Yeomen ripped off a 13-4 run that featured six points from
Asaan Snipes-Rea and six from Radusinovic to give Oberlin its first double-digit lead of the game at 46-35 at the 12:15 mark.
A 4-point play by Radusinovic swelled the Oberlin advantage out to 14, 58-44, with 7:41 left to expire. The Tigers would momentarily get the deficit down to nine 44 seconds later but a Radusinovic layup on Oberlin's ensuing trip pushed it right back to 11 and the margin would stay in double figures the rest of the way.
Oberlin shot a season-high 57.1 percent (28-of-49), while holding the Tigers to just 38.9 percent (21-of-54). After going 9-of-18 from beyond the arc in the first half, the Yeomen defense made the proper halftime adjustment to hold the Tigers just 1-of-12 (8.3%) from distance over the final 20 minutes of play. OC also won the battle inside, out-rebounding DePauw 31-24 while out-scoring the Tigers 38-18 in the paint.
The victory keeps Oberlin's potential NCAC Tournament hopes alive as they are now 6-15 and 4-11 in the conference. DePauw dropped below the .500 mark at 10-11 and 7-8 in league play.
The Yeomen are back in action on Wednesday night at Allegheny College. Tip-time is set for 8 p.m.
