Dimonde Hale needed 20 points to become Denison's 18th member of the 1,000 point club. He got his 20 points and the Big Red came away with a 72-63 victory over Oberlin on Wednesday night from Livingston Gymnasium.
In a rough-and-tumble affair that ended with a combined 48 fouls and 59 free throws attempted, the Big Red shot 54 percent from the field and battled on the boards despite being without the team's starting center, Marr Mansfield, who was out with the flu.
The Yeomen took a 9-2 lead out of the gate and held a 16-7 advantage through the first seven minutes of the game. Over the next nine minutes of action, Oberlin would be held without a field goal and the Big Red pulled out to a 34-25 lead at halftime.
In the second half Denison kept the Yeomen within an arm's length thanks to some inspired play from the Big Red bench and 12 points from Farmer.
With 5:14 left in the game, Oberlin's Josh Merritt drove the lane and scored his 22nd point of the night while cutting the Denison lead to eight. On their next trip down the floor, Larry Farmer knocked down his only 3-point basket of the night, putting Denison back up 11 with 4:38 to play. Over the final 2:49 of the game DU would connect on 9 of 12 free throws to put the game out of reach.
Hale paced the victors with 20 points off an 8-of-12 performance. He connected on the milestone 1,000th point at the free throw line with 2:19 left in the game. He is the 18th player in the history of the program to achieve the feat and he is the first player since Chris Luther in 2010.
Farmer ended the night with 18 points and 12 rebounds in 30 minutes of action and off the bench, first-year Bret Woolard turned in his best game of the season with an eight point, six rebound effort in 20 minutes off the bench. Jon Akpapunam chipped in nine points and three assists in 15 minutes off the bench as well.
DU outrebounded Oberlin 39-22 while scoring 40 of their 72 points in the paint. Oberlin was paced by Josh Merritt's 24 points while Andrew Fox ended with 18 points and 10 rebounds.
Denison connected on 25-of-46 (.543) shots from the field while Oberlin hit on 19-of-47 (.404). The Big Red was 19-for-30 from the free throw line while Oberlin knocked down 20-of-29 from the charity stripe.
The Big Red improve to 5-7 overall and 2-1 in the North Coast Athletic Conference with the win. Oberlin falls to 4-7 and 0-3 in league play. The Big Red returns to action on Saturday when they travel to Gambier, Ohio for a 3 p.m. tip-off against Kenyon College.