Box Score

Oberlin, Ohio – The Oberlin College men's basketball team saw its NCAC Tournament hopes take a big blow on Wednesday night as it fell to the visiting Denison University Big Red 73-62.

The Yeomen loss coupled with Kenyon's 66-51 victory over Earlham leaves Oberlin on the outside of the NCAC Tournament picture as it falls to just 2-13 in the league, while the Lords improved to 3-12 and move into sole possession of the eighth and final spot of the tournament with just one game remaining for both teams on Saturday.

Oberlin had its chances tonight, but couldn't quite come up with a big stop on defense when it needed to during critical parts of the second half.

Rookie Andrew Fox scored 13 of his game-high 19 points in the second session to guide the Yeomen attack. Sophomore Josh Merritt finished with 12 points, while freshman Johnathan Nelson checked in with 11 of his own. Junior James Tompsett added a career-high 10 rebounds in the loss.

Oberlin trailed by just four at the break, 23-19, but Denison (7-17, 7-8 NCAC) needed just three minutes in the second half to build its lead up to 11, 34-23.

Eventually the Yeomen would be down by as many as 18 points, but they had one last run in them that made things interesting down the stretch. An 11-0 spurt would make it a 56-49 game with 3:37 to go, but from that point on the Big Red would dial in on 17-of-22 free-throw attempts to secure the win.

Both teams struggled from the floor as the Yeomen shot 38.3-percent (23-of-60), while the Big Red converted just 36.4-percent (20-of-55) of their attempts on the night.

The charity stripe loomed large in the contest with Denison cashing in 26-of-37 freebies for a 70.3-percent success rate. Meanwhile, Oberlin made just 13-of-23 free throws for 56.5-percent.

The Oberlin bench-bunch was also outscored by its counterpart 36-12.

The Yeomen will conclude the regular season on Saturday afternoon when Wittenberg University comes to town for a 3 p.m. tilt.