Greencastle, Ind. -
Caleb Washington's basket with three-tenths of a second remaining in regulation tied the game at 61-61 and the Tigers earned the win in overtime with a 75-66 North Coast Athletic Conference and Senior Day victory over Oberlin. The Tigers moved to 15-7 overall and 8-5 in the NCAC, while the Yeomen dropped to 10-11 overall and 3-9 in conference play.
Oberlin's first lead of the game came on JJ Gray's layup with 4:29 left in regulation which gave the Yeomen a 58-57 lead. The guests extended it to four after Zach Bronson buried a three with 2:17 remaining.
Reph Stevenson's two free throws with 1:56 left cut the deficit in half. Oberlin missed two shots on its next possession, but got a pair of offensive rebounds, but a shot clock violation with 26 seconds remaining gave the ball back to the Tigers.
DePauw called a timeout with 4.7 seconds left and
Sam Jacobs tossed the inbounds pass to Washington who hit a jumper from just inside the free throw line to force overtime.
The Tigers took a 62-61 lead on Washington's free throw in the extra session before Zach Smith hit a pair to put the Yeomen in front, 63-62.
Eli Ellis responded with a three and an Oberlin miss led to Washington's pull-up jumper with 2:37 left that made it 67-63. Another Yeomen missed shot was followed by Stevenson's second-chance bucket and free throw after
Brady Kunka's offensive board and pushed the Tigers' lead to 70-63 with 1:41 left. DePauw led by as many as 10 in the extra period.
DePauw took a 30-24 lead into halftime and led by as many as nine in the opening four minutes of the second half before Oberlin climbed back to tie it at 45-45. The Tigers led by five on multiple occasions before the Yeomen went on an 11-2 run to take their largest lead of the game.
Stevenson led DePauw with 17 points, while Washington added 16 and
Joe Smith 15. Stevenson and Kunka each had seven rebounds, while Jacobs and Kunka handed out four assists each.
JJ Gray led Oberlin with 25 points with Smith totaling 13. Sam Kamenko hauled down seven rebounds, while Gray and Bronson each finished with three assists.
DePauw shot 41.7 percent for the game to Oberlin's 38.5 percent and the Tigers held a narrow 39-35 rebounding edge.
The Tigers return to action on Wed., Feb. 11 with a 6 p.m. NCAC contest at Denison.
