The Oglethorpe men's basketball team suffered a tough first half against the homestanding Birmingham-Southern Panthers Friday night in Birmingham, Alabama, as they were outscored 38-24 over the opening 20 minutes. The Stormy Petrels played Birmingham-Southern evenly over the course of the second half, but they couldn't recover from their first half deficit and fell 82-68, dropping to 1-3 in SAA play and 4-11 overall. 

The Panthers outshot Oglethorpe 48-to-41 percent over the course of the game, and outrebounded the Petrels 43-28, including a 15-8 mark on the offensive glass. This resulted in the home team outscoring the visitors 15-4 in second chance points. The Petrels did outshoot the Panthers 33-to-28 percent from long distance and 77-to-76 percent from the free throw line.

Junior guard Justin Edwards led the team with 22 points on 8-of-12 from the field, passing out 3 assists in the process. Senior forward Drew Patrick added 9 points and 5 steals, the latter mark tying a career high. Meanwhile, senior guard George Andino finished with 13 points on 3-of-8 from 3-point range.

After the game went back and forth early, the Panthers began a 13-2 ran that would give them a 15-5 advantage with 11:45 remaining in the first half. The Petrels cut that back down to five points, 17-12, with 8:53 remaining until halftime, but a 15-6 run by Birmingham-Southern put them ahead 32-18 with 2:44 left in the period. They maintained a 14-point advantage, 38-24, headed into the halftime break.

A 7-2 mini-run early in the second half pushed Birmingham-Southern further into the lead, giving them a 47-31 advantage with 15:26 left. After a brief respite, the home team continued their push, embarking on a 12-2 run over a 3:30 to take their largest lead of the game, 59-37, with 10:46 remaining. 

The Petrels went on a 10-2 run from there, making it 61-47 with 8:48 on the clock and giving themselves a chance. After seven straight Birmingham-Southern points, the Petrels again worked their way back into the contest, going on an 11-2 run to make it 70-58 with 3:31 left. The Petrels got to within as little as 10 points, but got no closer than that.

"We just really struggled to score in the first half," said Oglethorpe head coach Philip Ponder. "We missed a lot of shots we normally make. Their size advantage gave us problems throughout the game on the boards."

The Petrels will continue their road trip in Jackson, Mississippi, when they take on Millsaps Sunday at 4 p.m. Eastern. After that, they'll return home to take on Rhodes and Hendrix the following weekend.