Meadville, PA – The Oberlin College men's basketball team held a nine-point lead with 1:27 left in regulation but couldn't make it stand up as the Allegheny College Gators rallied to force overtime before going on to earn a 76-73 win over the Yeomen.
 
A Dimitrije Radusinovic layup gave the Yeomen a 64-55 lead with 87 seconds left in regulation, but they failed to finish the game with costly mistakes down the stretch. The Gators' Jordan Greynolds would cash in a 3-pointer to make it a two-score game and instead of working more the clock on their ensuing possession, the Yeomen took a shot with more than 10 seconds left on the shot clock, allowing the Gators to fire away and get a kickout 3-pointer off an offensive rebound to trim the gap down to three.
 
Oberlin would turn it over on its next possession and Brian Roberts Jr. would deposit a floater in the paint to trim it to one. Wolf Moser would then split a pair of charity tosses with 23 ticks still to expire to set the stage for Roberts' game-tying bucket. The Yeomen still had one last chance to potentially win it, but Darien Knowles was stripped on his way to the hoop as Oberlin was unable to get off a shot.
 
Oberlin briefly grabbed a 68-67 lead in overtime as Dorde Otasevic dialed in a long-range strike from the far wing with 3:41 left to play but two straight Yeomen turnovers sandwiched in-between seven Allegheny points had the Yeomen in a precarious position with less than two minutes to play.
 
A Moser triple-hit had the margin down to three with 82 seconds left and in the final seconds the deficit remained just three, but the Yeomen inexplicably elected to take a two-point basket with just 1.1 seconds remaining on the clock. Roberts would send in both free throws and Otasevic's three-quarter court prayer at the buzzer was not answered as Oberlin left town heartbroken.
 
The Yeomen trailed 34-22 at the half and worked all the way back to only see it slip away in the end. Trailing 40-30 with 13:22 still to play in the second half, the Yeomen ripped off a 13-0 run over the next five minutes to take the lead. Oberlin appeared to be well in control as the half wore on, taking multiple nine-point leads before one last charge from the Gators.
 
Otasevic led the Yeomen with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Yuuki Okubo added a career-high 12 points, while Radusinovic finished with 11.
 
The loss drops the Yeomen back to 6-16 overall and 4-12 in the NCAC, leaving their postseason chances on life support with two games to play.
 
Oberlin will play its final home game of the year on Friday night against Denison. Tip-time is set for 6 p.m.