The Oglethorpe men's basketball team fell behind Birmingham-Southern early Sunday afternoon in Dorough Field House and could not ever get much of a comeback going as they eventually fell, 78-65.

The loss drops the Stormy Petrels into a second-place tie in the SAA with Birmingham-Southern, dropping them to 16-3 overall and 6-2 in SAA play. 

The loss came despite 18 points from junior guard Alex Davis on 7-of-14 shooting and 15 points from senior guard Tyler Courson on 6-of-11 shooting. The Petrels also completely shut down Birmingham-Southern guard Larry Thomas, who averaged 21.1 points per game coming into the contest. The SAA's leading scorer was blanketed all afternoon and wound up with only nine points, most of them on free throws at the end.

The Petrels actually got off to a quick lead, making it seem as though things might go their way on the afternoon. They went on an 11-3 run early in the game to take a 6-point lead, 17-11, with 12:04 left in the first half. It would be their largest lead of the game. The visiting Panthers quickly came back with a 13-0 run as the Petrels went 6:20 without scoring a point. The Panthers continued their run to the end of the half, a 23-8 run in all, and led 36-27 at the break.

In the second half, the Petrels actually outshot the Panthers by a considerable margin. Oglethorpe shot 55 percent to Birmingham-Southern's 42 percent during the stanza, but the Petrels could not make any headway on the deficit. In fact, the Panthers actually outscored the Petrels 42-38 in the second half as they consistently got to the free-throw line. The visitors shot 23 free throws in the second period, making 14 of them. By contrast, the Stormy Petrels were 4-for-7. The Petrels outscored the Panthers 24-8 in the paint in the second half and Davis scored 14 of his 18 points in the period on 5-of-8 shooting, but the home side got no closer than seven points the entire second half.

On the whole, the Petrels outshot Birmingham-Southern 48-to-46 percent, but the Panthers shot 44 percent from 3-point range, making 11, compared to Oglethorpe's 39 percent on five makes. The Panthers also shot 32 total free throws for the game, making 66 percent of them, while the Petrels shot 55 percent on 11 attempts. Birmingham-Southern's bench also outscored Oglethorpe's 22-9 for the game.

The Petrels will now have to quickly regroup as they travel up to Danville, Ky., for the return matchup against first-place Centre. The game will get started at 8 p.m. Friday night. The Petrels will then continue their road trip when they take on Sewanee Sunday afternoon in Sewanee, Tenn., at 4 p.m. Eastern.