GAMBIER, Ohio – The Kenyon College Lords tightened the screws on the defensive end and put the clamps on the Oberlin College Yeomen during Wednesday night's North Coast Athletic Conference men's basketball game at Tomsich Arena. The Lords allowed just five first-half field goals and cruised to a 65-45 victory.

The game was decided early, as Kenyon consistently pestered Oberlin shooters and limited the Yeomen to just eight points in the game's first 13 minutes. The Yeomen actually jumped ahead 5-4 at the 16:15 mark of the first half, but didn't score again until the 9:05 mark. Meanwhile, Kenyon racked up 14 points during the Yeomen's dry spell and claimed a lead it would never give up.

Tim Connolly, a junior guard, had eight first-half points for Kenyon and Cooper Handelsman, a senior guard, chipped in with seven as the Lords raced out to a 30-16 halftime lead. The Lords forced ten first-half half turnovers and held Oberlin to just 5-of-21 (23.8 percent) shooting over those first 20 minutes.

The Yeomen (3-2, 1-1 NCAC) made a small push early in the second half, scoring seven consecutive points to whittle their deficit down to nine (32-23), but that was as close as they would get. Kenyon called out a timeout to halt the Oberlin run and then returned to the court to reel off seven straight points of its own.

The defensive stand was a good change of pace for the Lords (2-3, 1-1 NCAC), who were allowing an average of 84.0 points per game over their first four contests of the season.

On the offensive side of things, Connolly led all scorers with 15 points. He knocked down all three of his three-point attempts and also managed to grab eight rebounds. Handelsman finished with 11 points, as did Jonathan Amador and John Bray. Handelsman also served up four assists, while classmate Bray latched on to a game-high nine rebounds. Dan Voigt, a junior forward, came off the bench to record nine points and seven rebounds in 22 minutes of work.

Oberlin ended up shooting 16-of-48 (33.3 percent) for the game. Nathan Cohen led the Yeomen with 13, while Randy Ollie contributed 12 points, seven rebounds, and four blocked shots.

Kenyon will continue its conference schedule Saturday with a 4 p.m. game at Hiram College.