Oberlin, Ohio - The Oberlin College men's basketball team earned a hard-fought 71-68 win over the visiting College of Wooster Fighting Scots who came into Philips Gym just outside the Top 25 in the country and in first place in the North Coast Athletic Conference.
The victory was significant for the Yeomen as it marked the first time Oberlin has prevailed against Wooster since February 6, 1988 as they snapped a 60-game losing streak against the longtime national powerhouse.
Oberlin led by 14 at the break after Wooster shot just 21.9 percent (7-of-32) in the first half but the Scots gave the Yeomen all they could handle in the second session.
The Yeomen used a balanced scoring attack led by sophomore point guard
Yuuki Okubo as he stuffed the stat sheet with 14 points, five rebounds, three steals, three assists, and two blocks. Senior
Dorde Otasevic added 12 points to accompany his team-high seven rebounds, while
Will Bousquette III chipped in 10 points.
Anastasis Spyroglou sliced his way down the lane at the 12:31 mark of the first half to give Oberlin a 20-13 lead and would later secure their first double-digit advantage of the contest as Okubo took a Scots' turnover and went coast-to-coast to swell the gap to 28-17 with just over six minutes left in the frame.
From there the two foes would essentially trade points for the next five minutes of action, but the Yeomen finished the half strong as Bousquette III dialed in a wing 3-pointer before Spyroglou raced the floor to beat the buzzer to make it a 39-25 game at the intermission.
However, the Scots came out hot after the restart and quickly evaporated the Yeomen the lead, shrinking the deficit down to 43-40 less than five minutes into the frame. Oberlin didn't back down and answered the challenge as
Andrew Gannon's fastbreak layup with 12:21 on the clock pushed the lead back out to six at 51-45.
The Scots would answer with a 10-3 response run to grab their first lead of the game since the 16:56 mark of the first half as Elijah Meredith's triple-hit briefly put the visitors out in front 55-54. Thankfully, on the ensuing Yeomen possession,
Dimitrije Radusinovic cashed in a long-range strike of his own and Oberlin would never trail again in the contest.
With no more than two possessions separating the margin over the final 16:35 of the game, Oberlin went up five on a Spyroglou layup with 2:33 still to expire and after big three from Jamir Billings with just 55 ticks left, it was Gannon who came up clutch once again for the Yeomen as he dropped in a half-hook just ahead of the shot clock to push the margin back out to four.
In the final seconds Spryoglou would make one of two free throws to make it 70-67 and then Oberlin intentionally fouled on the floor to not allow the Scots to attempt a potential game-tying 3-pointer. Najee Hardaway connected on the first freebie and purposely missed the second but Otasevic came down with the rebound and was fouled with two seconds to go. He would split the pair of free throws to give the Scots a look at a potential game-tying buzzer beater but Meredith's shot was well off the mark to cap off the historic win for the Yeomen.
The Yeomen, who held the Scots to a season-low 62 points in their first meeting this year, kept Wooster at under 30 percent shooting on the night as they finished 19-of-64 for just 29.7-percent success rate. However, the tightly-officiated affair led to the Scots attempting 34 free throws as they deposited 24 of them for a 70.6 percent clip.
Oberlin connected on 26 of the 60 shots it hoisted for 43.3 percent and went 14-of-20 at the line for 70 percent. OC also outscored the Scots 36-24 in the paint and led the game for nearly 34 minutes.
The win moved the Yeomen's record to 6-14 overall and 2-9 in the NCAC. Wooster heads home at 15-4 and 9-2 in league play.
Oberlin is back in action on Wednesday night at Ohio Wesleyan University. Tip-time is set for 8 p.m.
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