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Westerville, Ohio — The Otterbein men's basketball defeated non-conference opponent Oberlin, 81-67, Saturday afternoon inside the Rike Center, as sophomore Jay Joseph led the Cardinals with a career-high 36 points.

Joseph, who transferred from Mount Vernon Nazarene, shot 11-of-17 from the field and connected on 11-12 from the charity stripe.

Otterbein (1-2 overall, 0-1 OAC) came out strong in the first half leading 34-24, as Kobe Long-Weber buried a three-pointer. Oberlin then responded with a 10-0 run at the 5:57 mark that lasted 3 minutes to even the score, as Joseph ended the run with a three.

Joseph came out on fire with a game-high 20 points in the first half on 7-of-9 shooting, while connecting on three shots from behind the arc. The Cards played a strong first period leading by a score of 41-35, as Otterbein shot an impressive 57 percent from the field.

The Cardinals carried that over to the second half, going on a 10-0 run at the 16:21 mark which lasted three minutes and propelled the lead back up to 54-45. Otterbein led by as many as 14, at 63-49 with 8:41 to play after a jumper from Maurice Beavers, but Oberlin (2-2 overall) sliced the gap back to just six points within 90 seconds.

However, Otterbein responded nicely by rattlling off 12 of the next 14 points and never looking back. The Cards shot 51 percent from the floor throughout, as the bench was instrumental by posting a 26-8 scoring edge.

Otterbein also held a 17-7 advantage in points off turnovers, with junior guard Nick Koontz leading the charge by tallying a whopping eight steals with constant pressure. The Cards had 14 as a team as the Yeomen committed twice as many turnovers.

The Cardinals will be back in action Tuesday night when they travel to Delaware, Ohio and take part in the NCAC/OAC Challenge opener against Ohio Wesleyan at 8 p.m.