OBERLIN, Ohio (February 18, 2022) – After having its four-game winning streak snapped last time out, the Denison University men's basketball team rebounded with an 80-76 double overtime victory at Oberlin College on Friday night, and now have only one game remaining in the regular season.

Freeman Brou started the scoring in the second overtime with two free throws to put Denison up 73-71 with 4:19 remaining. Then after a steal by Scotty Dean on Oberlin's next possession, Will Hunter scored the reverse layup to put the Big Red up four at 75-71 with three and a half minutes left.

Up by one at 75-74 with under a minute to go, Dean hit his sixth 3-pointer of the game, this one a dagger from deep beyond the top of the key to give the Big Red back a four-point lead.

Then after two free throws by the Yeomen to cut their deficit in half, Oberlin nearly forced Denison into a turnover under the home basket with under 30 seconds left, but the Big Red were able to get a timeout called to reset and force an Oberlin foul.

With 19 seconds left, Kevin Cheng hit both free throw attempts to make it a two-score game again, and then two misses from three by Oberlin in the final 12 seconds allowed the Big Red to hold on for the win. Oberlin was only 1-for-6 from the field in the second overtime while Denison made four of its seven free throw attempts to come away with the win.

It was the highest scoring output of the season for Dean, a freshman from Chicago, Illinois, who finished with a career-high 22 points on 8-for-12 shooting from the field and a 6-for-8 mark from 3-point range. Dean also added four steals and a career-best eight rebounds. Brou, meanwhile, has seven of his eight rebounds in the first half and matched Tyler Miller with 12 points while Cheng was second on the Big Red in scoring with 14 points.

In all for the game, there were nine ties and 17 lead changes, and neither team led by more than eight points.

In the first overtime period, it was Oberlin that struck first with two free throws with 3:45 left to take a 67-65 lead, but Denison answered on its next possession on a layup by Brou assisted by John Faller.

Oberlin then scored a jumper on its next possession before Brou tied it again and reached double digits in scoring with a hook shot. An offensive rebound on Oberlin's next possession allowed them to take the lead again, this time at 71-69 with under two minutes remaining.

With 1:20 left, Dean missed a long 3-pointer, but did not give up on the play and came up with a steal on the defensive rebound by Oberlin. Dean then found Hunter for the game-tying layup.

Then in the final minute, a miss from three by the Yeomen was rebounded by Faller. Following a timeout by the Big Red, a foul by Oberlin with 34 seconds left gave Denison the ball on the baseline, and a steal for the Yeomen on the inbounds pass nearly led to a transition layup for the home team to win it, but Hunter raced back and prevented it with a strip.

Oberlin retained possession, and then a wild shot with under 10 seconds left gave the ball back to the Big Red in transition, but the Yeomen wisely fouled with under two seconds left to prevent Denison from getting a good shot up before Oberlin could get back.

With 1.6 seconds left after a timeout by both teams, Hunter had a chance to win it at the rim, but it was blocked by the Yeomen.

Twice in the first overtime period, the Big Red missed a free throw on an and-one opportunity that would have given them the lead.

Just before the halftime buzzer sounded, an offensive rebound and putback by Brou tied the game at 29-29 to cap a back-and-forth first half that had 12 lead changes.

Each of the first five baskets of the second half were 3-pointers, including three win a row by Oberlin to make it 38-32. Additionally, each of Denison's first four field goals of the half were 3-pointers, but Oberlin was 8-for-13 from the field to start the half and continued to expand its lead to as many as eight points.

In all, six of Denison's first eight field goals of the second half were 3-pointers, two of which were by Cheng and three of which were by Dean. The last of those 3-pointers came off the hands of Dean to get Denison to within two at 53-51 with under nine minutes to play.

Then with seven minutes left in regulation, Brou hit a hook shot to tie it at 55-55, and then one minute later, Brou scored again to cap an 11-2 Denison run and put the Big Red ahead for the first time in the second half at 57-55.

Unfortunately, Oberlin's Dimitrije Radusinovic answered with his fifth 3-pointer of the game to put the Yeomen back in front. Radusinovic had 18 of his team's 29 points at halftime on 7-for-11 shooting overall and 4-for-5 shooting from three. Starting with the 3-pointer by Radusinovic, Oberlin proceed to score eight in a row to go ahead 63-57 with 4:18 on the clock.

Hunter would score a layup to stop the 8-0 Oberlin run with three and a half minutes to go, and then with 2:06 left, a pair of free throws by Miller made it a one-possession game at 65-63.

Oberlin would miss its next shot on a great defense effort and block by Emmett Burnside, who then made his presence felt on both ends of the floor by driving the lane and scoring to tie the game at 65-65 with 1:34 remaining.

Both teams shot over 53 percent from the field and were 6-for-10 from three in the second half, but in the end, it was Denison that improved to 11-12 overall with the win and earned its 10th conference win of the season at 10-7. Oberlin, meanwhile, was playing in its final home game of the year and fell to 6-17 and 4-13 with its 10th loss in its last 11 games.

It was also the second straight overtime game for Oberlin while for Denison, it was the Big Red's fourth overtime of the season and second overtime win in their last three games.

Now with only one game to go, Denison will wrap up the regular season at 3 p.m. on Saturday, February 19, at Allegheny College. The Big Red defeated Allegheny by eight points (82-74) back on January 15 in what was their first game since the Winter break at the time.