Yeomen Make NCAC Tournament Appearance
BY IAN HAYNES

For the first time since the 1997-98 season the Oberlin men’s basketball team made an appearance in the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament.
The Yeomen ended the regular season this past Saturday with a 78-74 loss to Earlham College. They took on Wittenberg University in the first round of the NCAC Tournament on Tuesday and lost 84-63 to end their season at 7-18 overall, and 4-12 in conference play.
For some, Saturday afternoon was merely the last home game of the season; however, for three Yeomen it was the last home game of their college basketball career. Seniors James Knight, Maurice Elrod and Jordan Kaltman were recognized this past Saturday in their last game in Philips Gymnasium.
“[Elrod] and [Knight] have led us the whole year in just about everything, scoring, leadership, hustle — they set the tone for the rest of us this year,” first-year Julius Hill said. “[Kaltman] was the heart and soul of this team. He was always ready and willing to do whatever was needed for the team.”
Knight got the game started on the right note when he caught and reverse dunked an alley-oop pass from Elrod.
First-year Cameron Leverett, one of the leaders in the NCAC in three point percentage, increased it on the next trip down the court, knocking down a three from the corner to give Oberlin the early 5-0 lead.
Earlham broke into the scorer’s box on the following possession when post man Brady Keaton scored from underneath. Keaton proved to be one of the deciding factors in the game, scoring a game high 28 points on 10-12 shooting from the field, the majority of those shots coming in the paint. Keaton also nailed eight of 12 free throws in the game.
After falling behind early, Earlham battled back and kept it close throughout the remainder of the first half. The lead changed hands eight times in the first half with Oberlin up by two points with 18 seconds to go. Earlham’s Jamar Wright hit a jumper to tie the game for the sixth time in the half, and a failed last-second shot by Leverett left the score tied at 35 going into the half.

Keaton ended the first half perfect from the field and perfect from the line to lead all scorers with 14 points. Knight led all Oberlin scorers with nine.
The second half began in stark contrast to the first. Instead of Oberlin jumping out to the early lead it was Earlham who came out of the locker room gunning.
Again, it was Keaton accompanied by teammate Nathan Stoops leading Earlham. In the second half, Keaton added another 14 points while Stoops scored 10, but more importantly pulled down 10 rebounds.

Free-throws throughout the second half kept Earlham ahead of Oberlin. Earlham found themselves at the charity stripe 27 times in the second half, and connected 18 times to keep the Yeomen at a distance.
After trailing all of the second half and finding themselves down 13 with fewer than three minutes to play, Oberlin did what they have done all year, they dug themselves out of hole and made it a game.
Junior Brian Buchanan got the scoring started, hitting a jumper that cut the lead to 11. Knight followed with a layup, decreasing Earlham’s lead to single digits at nine. 

After Earlham’s Travis Brett converted two free-throws, extending the lead back to 11, Knight sank a three with just over a minute to play, pulling Oberlin within eight.
Earlham’s Jamar Wright sank one of two free throws at the other end, increasing Earlham’s lead to nine with 50 seconds to play.
With the crowd loudly chanting for Kaltman, Head Coach Mike Cavey called on the senior to enter the game for the last 30 seconds.
“Coach [Cavey] told [Kaltman] he could shoot one three because that was the one thing [Kaltman] wanted to do before the season was over,” Hill said.

With 15 seconds to go in the game, Kaltman spotted up for three and took the shot. He missed, but followed the shot, grabbing the offensive rebound and kicked it out to Knight. Once again Kaltman spotted up for three, this time draining the shot and sending the crowd into a frenzy.
“Coach put Jordan in to get his three-point shot, it turned out to be a big play when he hit it, and when G [sophomore Djordje Eremic] followed it up with another three, we were back into the game,” Hill said.
After Eremic’s big three, both teams called timeout. With four seconds remaining on the clock, a foul was called on Knight before the inbound pass, sending Earlham’s Curtis Wright to the line to shoot two. Wright connected on both, extending Earlham’s lead to four with just as many seconds to play.
A last-second shot by sophomore Jon MacDonald missed, ending the game 78-74 in favor of Earlham.

Knight finished the game with 24 points, followed by Eremic with 16 and Buchanan with 12. Elrod finished his last game with eight points but led all players with six assists.
This past Tuesday, Oberlin traveled to Springfield, Ohio to take on Wittenberg University in the first game of the NCAC playoffs. Wittenberg carried in a record of 21-2, with the only two losses coming to Ohio Wesleyan and Otterbein College.
Throughout most the first half, Oberlin matched Wittenberg almost shot for shot. With around six minutes to go in the first half, Wittenberg put together a small run, increasing their lead from four to 14 in just over a minute. Oberlin hung in the game, cutting the lead to nine to end the first half with Wittenberg up 45-36.
“We played with them offensively in the first half. It seemed like every time they scored we would come down and match them at the other end. We just couldn’t get any defensive stops and gave them too many second chances,” Hill said.
Oberlin was outrebounded 24-9 in the first half. 11 of the Tigers’ rebounds were on the offensive end, leading to 12 second chance points in the first half.
Wittenberg came out of the locker room shooting in the second half. In just under five minutes, the Tigers’ lead increased from nine to 19.
“We came out a little less energetic in the second half. Our offense never really got going. We had a lot of one-on-one play and nothing set for the first five minutes and the shots weren’t dropping,” Hill said.

With 15 minutes to go in the game, Oberlin could do nothing better than match Wittenberg shot for shot the rest of the game. The closest the Yeomen came to Wittenberg was 15, after Hill grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled, sending him to the line. He hit one of two and followed by sinking a three to pull Oberlin to within 15 with 4:35 to play.
Wittenberg made no major mistakes in the final minutes of the game, sealing the victory, 84-63.
Knight and Elrod were the game’s two high scorers with 20 and 17, respectively, though the Tigers had four players in double figures.
The Yeoman ended the season with a 7-18 record but what they accomplished as a team speaks more than the record. This season the Yeomen had two players — Elrod and Knight — score their 1000th point, made the conference tournament for the first time in four years and had the winningest season in a decade.