The Oglethorpe men's basketball team ran into a hot-shooting Millsaps group Sunday afternoon in Jackson, Mississippi, and came away with a 92-72 loss on the day. The homestanding Majors outscored the Stormy Petrels 50-34 in the second half, turning what had been a close game at halftime into a rout. The Petrels fell to 7-7 overall and 1-2 in SAA play with the defeat.
Down 42-38 at halftime, the Petrels quickly took the lead back early in the second half with back-to-back baskets from freshman guard Carlos Sone and sophomore forward Will Koch. They held a 43-42 edge less than a minute into the second period. However, Millsaps embarked on a 15-4 run over the next 3:30 to vault themselves into a 57-47 lead with 15:40 remaining. Oglethorpe used 3-pointers by senior forwards Will Perry and Zach Breathwaite to pull back to within five, 60-55, with 12:15 left. The Majors used a 17-4 stretch to bust out to a 77-59 lead with 6:40 on the clock. The Petrels went on a 12-5 spurt to cut it to 80-69 with 4:30 left, but Millsaps ended the game on a 12-3 run, holding the Petrels scoreless for the final 2:45 of the game.
The teams went back and forth for much of the first half. The Majors pushed out to a 14-10 lead at the 13:45 mark, but the Petrels responded with nine straight points to make it 19-14 with 11:30 left in the opening period. Millsaps scored eight straight points after that, though, and the teams continued to trade baskets. An 11-4 run late in the half gave the visitors a 38-36 edge with 1:30 left, but the home side answered with six straight of their own to make it 42-38 in their favor at halftime.
Millsaps shot 56.4 percent from the field overall and 48 percent from 3-point range. The Petrels shot just 43.4 percent for the game, but actually shot much better from 3-point range than from inside the arc, converting on 44.4 percent of their shots from distance and making 16 of them. They were just 7-of-27 on two-point shots, and also made only 55.6 percent of their attempts from the free-throw line. The Majors outrebounded Oglethorpe 40-19 and outscored them 38-10 in the paint.
Perry led the way for Oglethorpe, scoring 22 points on 6-of-13 from 3-point range. Sone added 15 on 5-of-10 from distance, while Koch finished with 14 points on 5-of-10 from the field. Sophomore guard Lane Foster led the team with seven assists.
"Millsaps is the biggest Division III team I've ever seen," said Oglethorpe head coach Philip Ponder, "and with their size, when they shoot the way they did today, not many teams are going to beat them. We just couldn't get stops today, and they killed us on the boards."
The Petrels will be back in action on Friday, when they welcome Centre to Dorough Field House for their SAA home opener at 8 p.m. After that, they'll host Sewanee Sunday at 3 p.m.