GRANVILLE, Ohio (December 6, 2023) – The Denison University men's basketball team did not take its first lead until the final five and a half minutes of the game, and then four ties and five lead changes later, it took an off-balance 3-pointer by Scotty Dean in the final 20 seconds to help clinch the 86-80 home win for the Big Red over Oberlin College.

After Denison fell behind 72-69, the first 3-pointer of the game by Dean tied it with just over four minutes to go, but a tip-in dunk by the Yeomen on their next possession put them back in front.

Dean then began to feel it and sank a fall-away 3-pointer from the corner in front of his own bench to put the Big Red back in front (76-74) with under three and a half minutes left, and then after an and-one by Oberlin, another three by Dean made it 79-77 Big Red with three minutes left.

Tied at 79-79 in the final two minutes, Emmett Burnside was fouled going for a reverse layup and went 1-for-2 to put Denison ahead, and then in the final minute and a half, a turnover by Oberlin under the Denison basket led to a baseline out-of-bounds play for the Big Red that saw Dean find Gates Flynn for the spinning layup to make it 82-79 Denison heading into the final minute of action.

In the final 30 seconds of the game and with the Big Red in possession, the ball went into the backcourt before being chased down by Dean, who then brought it back up toward the 3-point line before launching a desperation shot off of one leg with the shot clock expiring.

Somehow, the shot by Dean found nothing but the bottom of the net to make it 85-79 Big Red in the final 20 seconds and effectively put the game out of reach for Oberlin.

It was Dean's fourth 3-pointer of the game, all of which came in the final four-plus minutes of action.

Dean finished 6-for-10 from the field and 4-for-7 from three and led a group of five Big Red players in double-digit scoring with 16 points and was one of five players with five or more rebounds. He has made at least three 3-pointers in each of Denison's last five games.

Tyler Miller poured in a season-high 14 points on two 3-pointers and six points from the free throw line while also adding five rebounds.

Aidan King scored 11 points on 2-for-3 shooting from three and added five boards and a team-high four assists while Cameron Smith matched him with 11 points on 3-for-6 shooting from three.

The final Big Red player in double-digit scoring was Flynn with a career-high of 10 points.

Kellon Smith added nine points while Trevor Reed finished with eight points and matched Burnside with a team-high six rebounds.

Despite being outscored 44-30 in the paint, the Big Red connected on six 3-pointers in both halves while limiting the Yeomen to just six made 3-pointers for the game.

Even though they finished with just six made 3-pointers, Oberlin's Andrew Gannon started the game 3-for-3 from 3-point range, with his third make staking the Yeomen to an early 11-4 lead four minutes in.

Oberlin then continued its hot start and led 15-4 six minutes in after making six of their first 10 shots of the game.

From there, the closest Denison got in the first half was to within five before trailing 42-36 at halftime after back-to-back 3-pointers in the final minute by Miller.

In all, the Yeomen shot 53.3 percent (16-30) from the field and were 4-6 (66.7 percent) from three in the opening 20 minutes.

Just under six minutes into the second half, a layup by King made it 52-48, the closest margin for the Big Red since the score was 8-4.

Then just under nine minutes into the period, an offensive rebound and layup by Nick Heath made it just a one-point game at 58-57, but the Yeomen answered back with their only two 3-pointers of the second half on their next two possessions.

That made it 64-57 with 10 and a half minutes to go, but a sequence of three straight offensive rebounds by the Big Red led to two free throws by Flynn to make it 64-62 with just nine minutes remaining.

Unfortunately, on the next Denison possession, Flynn missed the front end of a one-and-one that could have tied it if he made both free throws, and then back-to-back layups for Oberlin made it 68-82 with seven and a half minutes to go.

A tip-in by Burnside followed by two free throws by Miller got the Big Red to within two again (68-66) with over six minutes left, and then a defensive rebound and push up the court by Dean after an air-balled 3-pointer by Oberlin led to a corner three by King to give Denison its first lead of the game (69-68) with 5:22 on the clock.

With what was its seventh straight win against Oberlin, Denison improved to 5-4 overall and 3-0 in the North Coast Athletic Conference while Oberlin dropped to 4-6 and 0-3. The Yeomen have lost their first three conference games so far this season by a combined 14 points after falling 76-74 on a buzzer-beater at Wittenberg University last Wednesday before dropping a six-point game (76-70) at home against Wabash College on Saturday.

Wednesday's contest against Oberlin was the second game of a four-game homestand for Denison, which will continue with its fourth straight conference game as the Big Red host Ohio Wesleyan University for a 3 p.m. showdown on Saturday, December 9.