The Oglethorpe men's basketball team fell behind by 11 points with just over 12 minutes remaining Sunday afternoon against the visiting Centre Colonels, but the squad responded with a rousing rally, outscoring the visitors 29-9 over the remainder of the contest and turning a game that looked like it would be a loss into a 72-63 victory at Dorough Field House. The result improves the Stormy Petrels to 9-10 on the season overall, 4-4 in Southern Athletic Association play.
The Colonels held a 54-43 edge with 12:11 remaining in the game, but that's when the Petrels began their comeback. Sophomore forward Will Perry, who finished with 18 points on 7 of 11 from the field and 4 of 7 from 3-point range, converted a layup to start the run, then the Petrels got back-to-back fastbreak buckets directly off of steals from junior guard George Andino and sophomore forward Chase Wardlaw. Wardlaw wound up with an excellent game, finishing with 18 points on 6 of 12 from the field and 5 of 6 from the charity stripe to go with 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals. Andino finished with 6 points, 4 assists and 3 steals.
Centre pushed their lead back out to eight points with a 3-pointer, but the Petrels continued their run. They reeled off 13 straight points over the next five minutes, turning the game around and jumping out to a 62-57 edge with 5:18 remaining. After Centre stanched their scoreless streak with a bucket, the Petrels pushed their lead out to six with a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Chris Lawrence, who finished with 15 points on 5-of-9 three-point shooting. At that point, Oglethorpe had outscored the Colonels 22-5 over a 7:30 stretch.
Neither team was able to score for the next three minutes, but that suited the Petrels just fine, as they were hanging onto their 65-59 advantage. The game whittled down to the final 1:15, with the Petrels still leading by six. From that point, Wardlaw made 5-of-6 free throws down the stretch, securing the victory. He put the icing on the cake with a fastbreak dunk with 20 seconds remaining.
Up by six at the half, Centre pushed their advantage in the opening minutes of the second. They slowly increased their lead over the opening seven minutes of the half, outscoring the home team 15-10 over that stretch and building their 11-point advantage with 13:09 to go.
The Colonels led by as many as 14 points in the first half. However, down 32-18 with 6:14 remaining in the period, the Petrels made a run, outscoring Centre 12-4 over the remainder of the half. Lawrence capped off the run with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 36-30.
The Petrels started out with three consecutive long range shots from Perry and Lawrence, building a 9-3 advantage with 16:44 remaining in the opening period. At that point, the Colonels began their big run to push out to their largest lead of the game. They went on a 29-9 stretch of their own over 9:23 to build their 32-18 lead.
Junior guard Connor Smith was one of four Petrels to score in double figures. He poured in 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting and 2 of 4 from 3-point range while adding 7 rebounds.
The Petrels shot 54 percent from the field, 59 percent from long range, and 71 percent from the free throw line in the second half. For the game, they wound up at 43 percent from the field, 40 percent from 3-point range, and 67 percent from the line. That compared with 36 percent from the field and 41 percent from long distance for the Colonels. For the game, the Petrels outscored the Colonels 14-3 on the fast break. They outrebounded a big Centre team 39-36 for the game.
"This was a great win for us today," said Oglethorpe head coach Philip Ponder. "Centre was shooting the ball unbelievably for about the first 30 minutes, but I just kept telling the guys in every huddle to just keep fighting and that Centre couldn't keep shooting like that. The guys fought hard all game, and when Centre finally cooled off, we were able to make our run. I'm really proud of the guys and how they bounced back from a tough loss on Friday, and how they never gave up today, even when things weren't looking good there for awhile. We got great contributions from a lot of guys."
"The difference in the game Friday night was us getting outrebounded," Ponder continued. "I liked the way we attacked the glass today. If you look at all of our games throughout the year, when we rebound the ball well, we usually win."
The Petrels now look to finish their home season on a good note, as they welcome Rhodes and Hendrix in to Dorough Field House Friday and Sunday, respectively. They'll go against Rhodes on Senior Night at 8 p.m. before ending their home season against Hendrix Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m.