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February 2 – With under 10 seconds to play, Mike Loll found first-year Ryan Magiera underneath the basketball for the game-winning layup to propel the Oberlin College men’s basketball team to a thrilling 65-64 victory over Earlham College on Saturday in front of an alumni crowd that included George Smith and Chris Broussard of ESPN.
“We got what we wanted on the final play,” head coach Isaiah Cavaco said. “The guys did a great job of executing and finding the holes in Earlham’s defense. It was special for us to get this win in front of our alumni that has been so supportive of our program.”
The Quakers did have one final shot at trying to escape with a win as Justin Carter took the inbound with five seconds left and drove to the paint, but Noah Goldman did a tremendous job in help defense of challenging his final shot as Carter drew nothing but air.
For the second-straight game, Loll led the Yeomen in scoring as he dropped in 22 points to go along with a team-high seven rebounds. Fellow junior Omari Hall added 13 as he dialed in on 4-of-7 triples-tries on the night. Matt Godwin also added three triple-hits of own as he contributed 11 points.
“It was good to a get a win especially being as short-handed as we are,” Cavaco added. “Mike (Loll) carried us early on in the game and made some clutch plays in the second half – including the great assist on the final play.”
The entire 40 minutes were played very closely as the lead changed hands 15 times and the game was tied on six different occasions.
Oberlin (4-15, 3-7 NCAC) held its largest lead of the game at 18-10 six minutes in, but Earlham (2-17, 0-10 NCAC) used an 18-6 run to claim a 28-26 edge at the 5:48 mark. A 4-point play by Hall got the Yeomen within one in the final minute of the half, but The Quakers added three points of their own before the end of the first session to hold a 41-37 lead a the break.
The seesaw battle continued for entire second half, but Magiera completed an old-fashion 3-point play to give OC a 59-57 cushion with 2:25 left on the clock. A pair of clutch free throws by Loll and layup by Godwin put the Yeomen on top 63-61 with 37 seconds left to play. Neil Collins of Earlham answered with a 3-pointer from the far corner to give the Quakers a one-point advantage, 64-63, while setting the stage for the game-ending heroics.
Earlham shot 48.9 percent (22-of-45) on the night, while Oberlin checked in at 47.7 percent (21-of-44). OC also connected on 47.8 percent (11-of-23) of its attempts from long range, while converting at a 92.3 percent (12-of-13) clip at the line – going a perfect 7-of-7 in the second half. | 
