The Oglethorpe men's basketball team appeared to have pulled out another tight win over the visiting Sewanee Tigers Friday night at Dorough Field House, but Sewanee had other ideas, sinking a 3-pointer with 0.3 seconds left to defeat the Stormy Petrels 79-78. The loss dropped Oglethorpe to a third-place tie in the SAA as they fell to 7-5 in league play and 13-10 overall.
Sewanee led 69-64 with just over 2 minutes to go, but Oglethorpe junior guard Lane Foster sank a pair of free throws to cut it to a 3-point game, then freshman guard Justin Day drove to the basket to make it a 69-68 game with 1:45 on the clock. The Tigers quickly got it back up to a 3-point game, but Day again drove to the basket and got his shot to go, making it 71-70 with 1:40 left. The visitors again pushed their advantage back up to 3 points, but junior guard Dimetri Chambers got fouled on a 3-point shot and sank all three of his free throws to tie the score. Sewanee sank another 3-pointer on the other end to make it 76-73 with just 25 seconds left, but Day buried a 3-pointer with 14 seconds left and was fouled in the process. He completed the 4-point play to give his team a 77-76 lead. Sewanee missed a couple point-blank shots and Foster grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 4 seconds left. He split the pair of free throws to make it 78-76, but the Tigers sank a 3-pointer with under a second to go to turn the score in their favor. A desperation heave came up short for the Petrels.
The Tigers came back from an 11-point deficit in the first half and a 7-point disadvantage early in the second, going on a 23-10 run over a 7-minute stretch of the second half to turn the tables and take a 52-46 lead with 12:30 left. The two sides went back and forth from there.
The Petrels built an 11-point lead in the first half, going on a 14-3 run to take a 24-13 advantage with 7:45 left in the opening period. Sewanee came back to tie the game at 29-29, but was unable to take the lead the remainder of the first half.
The Tigers outscored the Petrels 11-2 in second chance points and outrebounded them 12-5 on the offensive glass. Oglethorpe outscored the visitors 30-8 off the bench.
Day led the Petrels off the bench with 22 points on 8-of-15 from the field and 4-of-8 from beyond the arc. Chambers finished with 20 points on a perfect 5-for-5 from the free throw line, while Foster added 16 on 5-of-10 from the floor and five steals.
"That's a tough way to lose," said Oglethorpe head coach Philip Ponder. "We made a great comeback, but they made a tough shot from well beyond NBA 3-point range to beat us. I thought our defense was really good in the first half but we just couldn't get stops in the second. We haven't given up 50 points in a half all year. Every possession in these close games counts. It's going to be tough to sleep tonight, but this group has done a great job bouncing back. We just have to focus on Sunday, when we go against the first-place team in the SAA."
The Petrels take on the No. 19 Centre Colonels Sunday at 3 p.m. from Dorough Field House. Centre will be out for some redemption of their own, as they fell at Berry Friday night in SAA play for just their third defeat of their season.