Seniors earn a victory in game against Earlham

By Jamie Frankel

The time has stopped ticking. The ball has stopped bouncing. The dust has settled on four long months of hard work, struggles, triumphs and memories, yet the 2003-2004 men’s basketball team has come up one game short of postseason play.

When asked about the goals for next season, Coach Happy Dobbs was very open about his expectations.

“I expect us to improve,” he said. “I expect us to have a better record. That’s just showing signs of improvement. Next year we are looking to move to another level. We do have enough players coming back to understand the maturity level to win at the next level.”

Last Saturday, Oberlin hosted Earlham in the final game of the season. Four seniors Cameron Leveret, Bosko Tomasavic, Chris Ikpoh and Julius Hill played in their last game for the maroon and gold. Fighting only for pride, Oberlin came out hot and proved ready for the challenge that Earlham posed.

The game was tight from start to finish and neither team led by more than six points the whole game. At the end of the game, it was the graduating seniors who came up big in their final Oberlin win. Oberlin carved out a 63-62 victory to end a great two weeks for the Yeomen.

“We represented the school and the seniors well,” Dobbs said. “It meant a lot to a lot of people including themselves. They showed a lot of character and laid it on the line in the last game of the season. It was good to finish the season with a win, especially for the seniors.”

The season was replete with streaks. At the beginning of the season, Oberlin won three of its first four games. During the middle months of the season, Oberlin dropped twelve games in a row. At the end of the season, Oberlin closed with three wins in its last four games.

The prospects for next season are high. Oberlin will return seven players and hopes to bring in a strong recruiting class for the start of the 2004-2005 campaign. When asked what impact the late season success will have on next season, coach Dobbs said it came down to experience.

“It helps the younger kids to see how much it takes to mature,” he said. “By experiencing what the team went through it can only help them next year.”

For the season, senior Chris Ikpoh led the team, averaging 14.9 points per game and 8.8 rebounds per game. Fellow classmate Bosko Tomasavic ended up second in scoring averaging 11.0 points per game and 5.5 rebounds per game. Senior Cameron Leveret led the team with a 84.7% average from the free throw line while freshman Alex Malone amassed the most starts over the course of the season with 23.

The returning players will have to fill big holes in next year’s lineup. With a couple of years under his belt at the Division III level, Dobbs and his staff are well prepared to move to the next level during the 2004-2005 season.