Oglethorpe athletics file photo

By Nathan Ford
D3sports.com

Basketball has always been Savannah LeGate’s life. It hasn’t always been her love.

There was her junior year at Christ Presbyterian Academy in Nashville, when the fiery competitor decided she wouldn’t play basketball in college. There were times last season at Oglethorpe, when “probably the funniest kid” Alex Richey has coached was injured, let down and wishing she was the same player as the D3hoops.com Rookie of the Year.

But now? This season? With this team? During this NCAA tournament run? She couldn’t be more in love.

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“This has been – and I’ve said it a bunch of times – the most fun with basketball that I have had in my entire life,” LeGate said.

That’s saying a lot.

LeGate’s parents, Becky and Kevin, both played basketball at Belmont University in Nashville and are both coaches. She started playing basketball in kindergarten and was coached by her parents in high school – her mom was the head coach, her dad an assistant.

“It was an amazing experience,” Savannah LeGate said.

“It brought us closer in ways that I don’t think people who don’t have that experience can experience.”

There were arguments, sure, like any teenager has with their parents – only in this case, also on the basketball court – but every big win ended with hugs. Big wins still do. LeGate’s parents are planning to make the trip to Maine despite fans being banned from Friday’s Sweet 16 game between 11th-ranked Oglethorpe and No. 10 Whiteman at Bowdoin due to the coronavirus.

But there were occasional times when basketball became too much for LeGate.

Savannah’s sister, Faith, started her college career at Division I Lipscomb in Nashville. Savannah could have had a similar opportunity, but decided her junior year that high school basketball was plenty.

“When you’re so constantly surrounded by it, it just feels bombarding and overwhelming and I was so over it,” LeGate said.

Her attitude changed the next year, when she realized she had too much fun playing basketball to give it up. Still, she didn’t want the pressure that comes with a Division I or II scholarship, instead choosing a balanced lifestyle in which she can be involved in numerous on-campus activities – including, of course, hoops.

LeGate knew she wanted to play with Audrey Burdge, an AAU teammate who prepped at Father Ryan in Franklin, Tenn. They put together a list of criteria for schools and went on visits together. LeGate had a good feeling about an up-and-coming Oglethorpe program led by Richey, a 2011 graudate.

It was when Richey saw LeGate and Burdge wearing yellow Oglethorpe sweatshirts at an Oglethrope-Sewanee game near Nashville that he knew he could land program-elevating recruits.

LeGate told Burdge during a spring break trip she was planning on committing to Oglethorpe. Shortly after that, Burdge – who Richey calls the team’s “unsung hero” – called LeGate to tell her she was doing the same.

“We both just screamed,” LeGate said. “It was awesome.”

“When the two of them came in the door,” Richey said, “they really elevated this thing.”

This is Richey’s sixth season at the helm and every year the wins have increased for the Stormy Petrels, from 11 (it was five each of the two years prior) all the way to 29 and counting now.

“This isn’t work for me,” Richey said. “It hasn’t been work for six years, but specifically this group. It’s just an absolute joy to work with them every day.”

The Stormy Petrels are 29-1 and haven’t lost since a Nov. 15 setback against Emory & Henry. They went 14-0 in the SAA and clinched the conference’s automatic bid, a big goal after sweating through the selection show last season before getting an at-large bid. And LeGate is back to looking like the player who first showed up at Oglethorpe – despite occasionally dealing with shin splints, the center is averaging 13.3 points and 9.7 rebounds in 22.4 minutes per game.

For this group, it all started with an offseason trip to Costa Rica in which bonds were formed that set the stage for a special season.

“At the beginning of the year, I knew we had potential,” LeGate said. “We just clicked. We all have the same goals and we really pulled together as a team.”

The postseason has brought an unexpected challenge, with leading scorer Taylor Smith (13.6 ppg) out with an injury. Still, Oglethorpe was able to return to Lexington, Ky. – where its 2018-19 season ended in the NCAA second round – last weekend and beat William Peace and Randolph-Macon to earn at least another week together.

With 10 players averaging at least 12 minutes per game and stars like LeGate and Nikki Reed (11.1 ppg) willing to forgo minutes and stats for wins, this is a team built to withstand adversity late in the year.

Smith is still traveling with the team to cheer them on, a sign of the culture LeGate and Richey rave about.

“I don’t think you can fake that,” Richey said. “These kids, they all love each other, support one another and that’s just been such a joy.”

It’s why the love of basketball LeGate’s parents showed her has returned stronger than ever.

Oglethorpe wears warm-up shirts that read “FAMILY” and while, yes, that’s a cliché, take seriously what someone who has literally grown up with family and basketball inseparable says about the meaning behind that.

“This year, this group is so close and near and dear to my heart, it’s so refreshing,” LeGate said. “I just love basketball. I’m so much more into it than I ever have been in my entire life.

“My whole life, I feel like, has led up to these moments with this team.”