GAMBIER, Ohio – Sophomore guard Matt Shifrin scored a game-high 19 points Wednesday and led the Kenyon College Lords basketball team to a 67-59 home win against the Oberlin College Yeomen. The victory snapped Kenyon's seven-game losing streak and extended Oberlin's skid to 11 games.

Shifrin scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half of play. After sinking his only shot attempt of the first half, he went 4-of-5 from the floor and 8-of-9 at the free throw line during 16 minutes of second-half work. Within the game's final six minutes, he was 6-for-7 at the line.

As a team, the Lords went 18-of-23 (78.3 percent) at the free throw line and, other than a 2-2 tie, held the lead from start to finish.

Junior Phillip Crampton gave Kenyon the early edge by converting a pair of three-pointers and scoring eight points in the first half. That helped the Lords twice open leads as large as 13 points.

Oberlin kept pounding the paint and took high percentage shots to cut down its deficit. The Yeomen shot 59.1 percent in the first half and pulled within three points (31-28) at the break. Twenty-four of Oberlin's first 28 points were scored in the paint.

Kenyon made the right adjustments at the break and Oberlin tallied just a dozen more points down low. Over the final 20 minutes, the Yeomen shot just 37.0 percent.

While Oberlin struggled, Kenyon used a balanced attack to maintain a lead that hovered between six and eight points. With 6:09 left in the game, the lead grew back to double digits after Alex Laub delivered a perfect pass to Carter Powell, who was streaking down the middle of the lane and completed a layup. That put the Lords ahead 52-42. Oberlin sank a three-ball following that play, but never got closer than eight points the rest of the way.

The Yeomen went just 4-of-19 from three-point range and were forced to foul late in the game. Kenyon responded by opening up a couple more leads as large as 13 points. Led by Shifrin, the Lords then secured the win by going 8-for-11 at the charity stripe over the game's last six minutes.

Bennett Grigull, who had a pair of those late free throws for Kenyon, finished with 12 points. Crampton ended up with ten points, while Laub and Ethan Shapiro grabbed seven and five rebounds, respectively.

Oberlin was led by Andre Campbell, who racked up 17 points and six rebounds. Jack Poyle added 13 for the Yeomen.

The contest, held at Tomsich Arena, was just Kenyon's fifth home game of the season. The Lords (3-11, 2-5 NCAC) are 3-2 in those games, but 0-9 on the road. Oberlin (1-12, 0-6 NCAC) also remains winless on the road (0-6).