The Oglethorpe men's basketball team used brilliant shooting to outlast the Rhodes Lynx Sunday afternoon in Dorough Field House, defeating the visitors 81-74. The win keeps them in second place in the league at 9-3 and improves them to 19-4 overall.
The Stormy Petrels' 19th win is the most the program has had since the 1993-94 season, when they won 20. The victory keeps them in the mix for a potential NCAA Tournament berth, as well, with a road trip coming up which includes a game at third-place Birmingham-Southern, who defeated the Petrels in Atlanta a couple weeks ago.
This marks the third straight game in which the Petrels have shot 56 percent or better from the field (the other two were victories over Sewanee and Hendrix), but they took it to a new level on this afternoon. The Petrels shot 59 percent for the game, including 60 percent from three-point range and 73 percent from the free-throw line. This after an incredible 78 percent peformance in the first half where they shot 63 percent from three-point range and 83 percent from the line.
Freshman guard Connor Smith had his best game as a collegian so far, scoring 21 points on 6-of-9 three-point shooting, 7-of-13 overall. He also grabbed six rebounds for the game. Senior Tyler Courson, likely in his final home game, scored 15 points of his own on 5-of-10 shooting and five assists. Meanwhile, junior guard Alex Davis had a second consecutive standout performance, scoring 14 points on 10-of-13 free-throw shooting. He passed out six assists, as well.
The Petrels started the game out on fire, going on a 17-7 run to take a 27-15 lead with 8:53 remaining in the first half. Later on, a 9-3 run over a two-minute period gave them their largest lead of the game, 41-28, with 3:36 left in the period. However, despite Oglethorpe's hot shooting, which reached 12-of-15 at one point, Rhodes shot 52 percent in the first half themselves, including 50 percent from beyond the arc, and whittled the Petrels' halftime lead down to 48-42.
The Petrels got off to a good start in the second half, going on an 11-4 run to start the stanza and re-take a 13-point lead with 15:29 remaining. The Lynx refused to go away, however, culling the lead back down to five with a 10-2 run. However, the Petrels answered with a 10-2 run of their own which put them in control of the game, up 71-58 with 3:57 left. From there, the Petrels held on by hitting their free throws. Rhodes got the lead back down to five, but would get no closer, and the Petrels came away with the win, in the end.
In addition to currently holding second place by themselves, the Petrels assured themselves of no worse than third place in the league with Sunday's victory. They'll go on the road for the final weekend of the season, visiting third-place Birmingham-Southern Friday at 9 p.m. Eastern and Millsaps Sunday at 4 p.m. Eastern. They will then travel to the SAA Men's Basketball Championship in Danville, Ky., the following weekend. Centre clinched the No. 1 seed and the ability to host with a victory over Millsaps on Sunday.