Mechanicsburg, PA - The Oberlin College men's basketball team earned a hard-fought 70-65 road win over Messiah on Saturday afternoon. 

Freshman JJ Gray led OC with a career- and game-high 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting. The Huntington Beach, California, native also added six rebounds along the way. Andrew Gannon netted 13 points, while Yuuki Okubo chipped in 10 to accompany his six assists. Sophomore Milun Micanovic nearly missed a double-double with nine points and nine boards. 

Oberlin jumped out to a quick 8-1 lead but the Falcons would eventually settle in and even the affair at 14-14 on a Johnny McBride layup at the 12:40 mark of the first half. Messiah continued to use that momentum to grab a 20-16 advantage three minutes later, but the Yeomen came storming back, orchestrating a 15-6 run that featured eight points from Gray and seven from Okubo to give the Yeomen a 31-26 cushion. Oberlin would ultimately settle for a three-point halftime lead at 34-31. 

A put-back layup from senior Aidan Oliver at the midway point of the second half increased the Yeomen lead out to nine, 53-44, and a triple-hit from Gannon later made it 56-46 but the Falcons would not fly away quietly down the stretch. 

Following another long-range strike from Okubo that swelled the differential out to 11, 59-48, with 6:28 left to play it was Messiah who ripped off a 10-2 run to shrink the gap all the way down to two with 4:33 still to expire. 

A clutch 3-pointer from Gannon would allow the Yeomen to exhale for a bit and an old-fashioned 3-point play from Micanovic would make it a 69-63 game with 68 seconds to go as the Yeomen were able to fend off the last ditch effort from the Falcons. 

In a game that featured seven ties and four lead changes, it was Oberlin who shot 42.9 percent (24-of-56) from the floor, which included an impressive 11-of-23 (47.8%) showing from beyond the arc. However, Oberlin left plenty of points out there at the free throw line, connecting on just 11-of-21 charity tosses for a 52.4 percent success rate. 

Messiah checked in at 47.4 percent (27-of-57) from the floor, going a respectable 8-of-22 (36.4%) from distance. Thankfully, their free throw woes were even worse than Oberlin with just three makes on 13 attempts for a 23.1 percent clip. 

The win ran Oberlin's record to 2-3 while Messiah dropped back to 1-3.

The Yeomen road warriors will be back in action on Tuesday night at Ohio Northern University with tip-time set for 6 p.m.