Oberlin, Ohio – Oberlin and Earlham were a made free throw away from going to overtime, but the Quakers' Darrell Hutchison Jr. second attempt was off the mark as the Yeomen held on for an 81-80 win on Sunday afternoon at Philips Gym.
 
A 3-pointer from sophomore Joshua Friedkin gave the Yeomen an 81-78 lead with five seconds to go. Electing to foul in the backcourt, the Yeomen would send Blake Bonin to the line for a pair of charity tosses. He would make the first before intentionally missing the second. Oberlin came down with the rebound, but was then called for traveling to give the Quakers one last chance.
 
With just 1.2 seconds left to expire, The Quakers got the ball to Hutchison Jr. who was fouled with just 2-tenths of a second still showing on the clock. He would calmly knock down his first attempt with a large home crowd trying to rattle him. The cheers must have worked on his second attempt as it was off target allowing Oberlin to escape with the win.
 
Four of Oberlin's starters finished in double figures with sophomore guard Christian Fioretti leading the way with a career-high 22 points on 10-of-11 shooting, to go along with a team-high five assists, and four rebounds. Friedkin added 21 points as he cashed in six threes in addition to six boards. Andre Campbell ripped down a team-high eight rebounds to accompany his 14 points. Coming off his first-career 20-point effort on Friday, Eli Silverman-Lloyd closed his weekend with 13 points and four assists.
 
Oberlin never led in the first half as the Quakers came out scorching hot, hitting nine of their first 12 shots as they opened up a 19-12 lead in the early going. Earlham increased its advantage out to 13, 38-25, on a Chainey Zolman 3-pointer at the 4:34 mark.
 
However, the Yeomen would close the half strong, outscoring their opponents 15-6 down the stretch to cut the deficit down to 44-40 at the half. A pair of threes from Friedkin – one of which that turned into a 4-point play – sparked a 9-0 response to make it 38-34 with just over three minutes left in the frame. The Quakers would push the gap back out to eight, but Silverman-Lloyd would beat the buzzer to make it a two-possession game.
 
Oberlin would snatch its first lead of the game on a Fioretti triple-hit to make it 45-44 Yeomen, but Earlham answered back to grab a 60-51 advantage at the 14:23 mark.

The Yeomen would chip away and reclaim the lead for the final time with 6:03 left to play as a put-back layup from Charles Tiedemann moved them out in front 68-67.
 
The Yeomen later held a 76-71 advantage with 1:48 left on the clock, but Earlham would make it even at 78-all with just 13 ticks left on a layup by Zolman to setup the thrilling finish.
 
Oberlin, which led for just 6:25 in the game, shot 57.7 percent (30-of-52) from the floor and was 11-of-12 (91.7%) at the free throw line.
 
The Yeomen allowed the Quakers to stay close throughout as they committed 22 turnovers that translated into 28 points for the visitors. However, Oberlin won the rebounding war 35-24 and outscored the Quakers 32-18 in the paint.
 
Oberlin returns to action next weekend at the RIT Tournament where it will open against SUNY Cobleskill on Saturday.