Oberlin, Ohio – The Oberlin College men's basketball team earned a wild 111-104 wire-to-wire victory over Muskingum University to capture the Courtyard by Marriott Holiday Classic on Saturday afternoon at Philips Gym.
The Muskies trailed by 20 points with 12:34 left to play in the game, but they turned to a full-court press that got the Yeomen out of sync. The defense coupled with 40 second-half points from Marcus Dempsey had the Yeomen lead down to just three at 99-96 with 52 seconds left to play in the game.
Thankfully, the Yeomen were able to hold on for the win by going a perfect 15-of-15 at the free throw over the final 1:19. Dempsey would sink a pair of free throws for points 56 and 57 to make it 105-102 with 17 ticks left, but Christian Fioretti hit four straight free throws followed by another pair from Joshua Friedkin to let the Yeomen faithful exhale.
While Dempsey was certainly outstanding having scored 105 points in the two games of the tournament, the Yeomen offense was also impressive as they shot 60.7 percent (34-of-56) en route to tying the second-highest single-game point total in school history.
Junior Eli Silverman Lloyd led the charge with a career-high 31 points to go along with five rebounds. Friedkin added 24 points, six rebounds, and six assists to accompany a perfect 10-of-10 showing at the free throw line. Sophomore Andre Campbell went 8-of-12 from the floor to post a season-high 20 points, while Fioretti notched his first-career double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
The Yeomen opened the game with a 9-0 run and would later take a 21-9 lead at the 12:13 mark on a slashing layup from Evan Suppa. One of five triple-hits from Silverman-Lloyd made it 40-27 with just under three minutes left in the frame, but the Yeomen would net just four points in the remainder of the half as they held a 44-34 advantage at the half.
Oberlin started off the second half hot, eventually increasing its lead to 67-47, but the Muskies wouldn't go away quietly. The first Muskingum charge had the deficit down to 75-68 with 6:45 left to play, but the Yeomen answered back with a 12-4 response run to increase the lead back out to 15 with 4:17 left on the clock to make the comeback bid that much harder.
Dempsey would score 16 of his 57 points in the closing stretch, but the Yeomen had enough in the tank to hold on for the win to move to 6-5 on the year. The Muskies head back to New Concord, Ohio at 5-6.
The Muskies shot 50 percent (34-of-68) from the floor and went 24-of-30 (80%) at the free throw line. In addition to their stellar field goal shooting, the Yeomen went 33-of-43 (76.7%) at the charity stripe and made 10-of-18 (55.6%) triple-tries. The Yeomen also won the battle of the boards 42-22.
Oberlin will conclude the non-conference portion of its schedule on Wednesday night when it plays host to local rival Case Western Reserve at 6 p.m.