Facing long odds, the Oglethorpe men's basketball team rallied from an 11-point deficit Friday night at Dorough Field House, defeating the Rhodes Lynx 62-57 to improve to 10-10 overall and 5-4 in Southern Athletic Association play. The Stormy Petrels used a 20-4 run over the final 8:30 to facilitate the comeback.

Down 53-42 with nine minutes remaining, the Petrels were missing three players from their regular lineup and were not getting a lot going against the visiting Lynx. Things looked bleak, but the Petrels began an improbable comeback at that point. They ran off six consecutive points to pull to within five, 53-48, with 6:46 to go. After the Lynx broke the scoreless streak with a basket, the Petrel run continued, as five straight points after that brought Oglethorpe to within two, 55-53, with 2:10 remaining. A Rhodes layup put them back up by four with 1:56 left, but sophomore guard Chris Lawrence buried a 3-pointer with a hand in his face to cut the Petrel deficit to a single point, 57-56, with 1:37 remaining. After a Rhodes turnover, junior guard George Andino drove to the basket and converted a layup to improbably put the Petrels ahead by a point with 1:10 remaining. After a missed basket by Rhodes at the other end, Andino drove to the basket and got fouled with less than a second remaining on the shot clock. He hit both free throws to put the Petrels up 60-57 with 25 seconds left. The Petrels then played fantastic defense at the other end of the court, getting a blocked shot from Lawrence with three seconds remaining. Lawrence got fouled and put the game away at the free throw line, securing the win.

Junior guard Connor Smith led the Petrels with 16 points on 3 of 7 from long distance, while freshman center Tom Inungu added 11 points on 5 of 9 from the field. Lawrence added 10 points on 3 of 6 from the field, 2 of 3 from 3-point range, and 2 of 2 from the charity stripe while Andino chipped in 10, as well, while going 4 for 4 from the free throw line. He added four assists.

Up by six at the half, Rhodes began the second stanza by slowly pulling away from the home side. The Petrels quickly cut it to two, but the Lynx embarked on a 13-6 stretch over the next eight minutes to build their 11-point advantage.

In the first half, the Petrels began by pushing out to a 26-14 lead with 9:46 remaining in the opening period. However, the visitors started their comeback from there. They went on a 24-6 run over the remainder of the half to push out to a 6-point lead at the break.

For the game, the Petrels shot 47 percent from the field to their opponents' 42 percent. In addition, Oglethorpe made 79 percent of their free throws over the course of the game, outpacing Rhodes, who hit 46 percent of theirs. Rhodes did outrebound the Petrels 33-27, which resulted in a 12-6 advantage in second-chance points for the visitors. However, Oglethorpe outscored Rhodes 21-11 off the bench.

Friday night served as Senior Night for the Stormy Petrels, with guard Cole Romaguera being honored before the game for his career as a member of the squad.

"Tonight was a grit-and-grind win," said Oglethorpe head coach Philip Ponder. "We won it on the defensive side of the court. Our intensity in the second half was great, and it kept us in the game until we were able to make a nice run in the last few minutes. We battled through a lot of adversity tonight, and I couldn't be prouder of this group of guys."

The Petrels will take on Hendrix Sunday at 2 p.m. in their final home game of the regular season. After that, the team will hit the road for the campaign's final two weeks.