Men’s Basketball Grabs the Gators by their
Tails by Channing Joseph
The
Oberlin men’s basketball team pleased its fans this past Wednesday,
Feb. 13, by defeating the Allegheny Gators with a final score of
79-65. The win placed the team at 8-15 overall and helped them to
maintain their fifth place standing in the North Coast Atlantic
Conference. The victory was a welcome rebound after last week’s
16-point loss to Kenyon College, potentially putting the Yeomen back
on the track they seemed to be following prior to their Feb. 6
defeat, during which they had managed to pull off an impressive
five-game winning streak.
The latest game against the Gators
had held the possibility of being an intimidating proposition in
light of Allegheny’s Feb. 9 victory over Kenyon, 79-69, and
Oberlin’s recent, smoldering loss to that very team. Yet this
prospect seemed to hold no water for the Yeomen, who demonstrated
that they were up to the challenge. This readiness, however, was
not obvious early in the game, which began with two-point shots by
Ryan Meerstein and Eric Johnson of the opposing team. These early
Gator strides were countered by three-pointers from Oberlin’s Chris
Ikpoh and James Keating, and the rest of the period continued along
similar lines. The two teams did not differ more than a few points
from each other during this part of the game, both reaching the
half-way point with a mere three points separating them, Oberlin
scoring 38, Allegheny 35.
In
fact, it was not until quite some time into the second period, with
only about six minutes on the clock, that the Yeomen began to make
any significant progress against the game-long stalemate. This
sudden change may have been due in part to several good shots by
Keating, Ikpoh and Jon MacDonald, which seemed to propel the team
into a point-scoring frenzy, ultimately securing Oberlin the win
with a solid 14-point lead. Among the outstanding players who
helped to contribute to this victory were the aforementioned
sophomore Ikpoh, who alone scored an imposing 25 total points,
junior MacDonald, who racked up a career-high of 15 points, junior
Djordje Eremic, sophomore Cameron Leverett, and first-year James
Keating, who scored 14, 12, and 9 points, respectively. “We
played well most of the game, except for a few stints,” Ikpoh said,
“After last week’s loss, we knew we had to
win.” |