Box Score

Greencastle, IN – With defenders draped all over him, freshman Randy Ollie found a way to muscle-up the game-winning layup to propel the Oberlin College men's basketball team to a thrilling, 51-49, victory over DePauw University on Saturday afternoon.
 
After leading for the nearly the entire second half, the Yeomen found themselves tied with the Tigers with 14 seconds left to play. Head Coach Isaiah Cavaco called a timeout and designed a play to get the ball inside to Ollie who had a distinct size advantage over the Tigers' interior players. However, DePauw rushed two additional defenders at him and the rookie from Evanston, Illinois, basically had to go through their flailing arms to put the ball in the hoop.
 
"What a game, what a finish," Coach Cavaco said. "We were due to get one like this. We have been really close of putting it all together all year long and today we did that. We shot the ball well, much better than we had been, and our defense was excellent for the entire game."
 
Ollie finished with a game-high 13 points and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds. Geoff Simpson added 12 points, while Andrew Fox ripped down a game-high 11 rebounds to go along with eight points.
 
The game could not have started much better for the Yeomen as they kept the Tigers scoreless for the first seven minutes while opening up a 12-0 lead before DePauw finally got on the board at the 12:49 mark. However, the Tigers eventually found their rhythm and cut the Yeomen lead down to one, 18-17, following a Connor Rich 3-pointer with 5:43 left in the frame. Oberlin would extend the lead back out to six, but would hold just a slight 23-22 advantage at the half.
 
The Tigers' lone lead of the game came just seconds into the second half when they scored the first bucket of the session. Oberlin led by eight, 34-26, at the 15:34 mark following one of three Austin Little triple-hits that found the bottom of the net. It marked the Yeomen's largest cushion of the second half.
 
Another three from Little halfway through the stanza gave the Yeomen a five-point cushion, 41-36, but no more than five points would separate the two teams from that point on. Despite being held scoreless for 38 minutes, Tigers senior Barry Flynn would make two layups in row, with the last one coming with just 14 seconds left to setup the game-ending heroics.
 
The Yeomen defense did not allow a single Tiger to reach double figures in scoring and held them to just 37.5-percent (18-of-48) shooting. Oberlin finished at 45.2-percent (19-of-42), which included a 5-of-11 (45.5%) effort from beyond the arc. The Yeomen also won the battle of the boards 34-22.
 
With the win the Yeomen put themselves back into hunt for a potential NCAC Tournament berth, running their record to 6-17 overall and 4-10 in the league. DePauw, which has now lost to Oberlin in each of the last two seasons, fell to 14-9 and 7-7 in the conference.
 
Oberlin returns home to host Hiram on Wednesday night in a pivotal conference clash. Tip-time is set for 8 p.m.