The Oglethorpe men's basketball team fell to Millsaps at the Hangar Dome in Jackson, Mississippi, Friday night, 76-61, dropping to 11-11 on the season overall and 6-5 in Southern Athletic Association play. The Stormy Petrels had control of the game for much of the first half, but a second half run by the homestanding Majors proved too much to overcome. 

With the Petrels ahead 35-34 at halftime, Millsaps began the second period on a hot streak. They scored the opening six points of the half to take the lead, 40-35, with 18:35 remaining. That served as part of a 12-3 run over the opening 3:37 of the half which gave Millsaps a 46-38 advantage with 16:23 remaining. The Petrels answered with five consecutive points of their own, all of them coming from sophomore guard Chris Lawrence. That brought the Oglethorpe deficit back down to three, 46-43, with just under 16 minutes left.

However, the Majors answered with another run from there. They embarked on a 15-4 spurt over the next seven minutes to build a 61-47 advantage, their largest of the game to that point, with 8:55 to go. The Petrels answered with five consecutive points to cut the Millsaps lead back to single digits, 61-52, with 6:57 remaining, and the two teams traded baskets for awhile after that. The Petrels were still in the game, down 65-56 with 3:09 to play. After another brief Millsaps run, the Petrels again closed the gap with five straight points, making it a 69-61 game with 51 seconds to go. However, the Majors closed the game out from there. They outscored the Petrels 7-0 over the final 50 seconds to secure the 76-61 victory.

The Petrels did enjoy a couple of very good individual performances on the evening. Junior guard Connor Smith recorded his first career double-double, scoring 21 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. He was 8 of 16 from the field. Meanwhile, sophomore guard Justin Edwards returned from an injury and added 18 points on 5 of 9 from the field. 

It wasn't enough, however, as the team shot 40 percent from the field, including 30 percent in the second half. By contrast, Millsaps shot 48 percent for the game and 52 percent for the second half. The Majors enjoyed just a 37-35 rebounding edge overall, but it was a 23-10 advantage in the second period. Millsaps also scored 16 points off of Oglethorpe's 14 turnovers while the Petrels scored just three points off the Majors' six.

The Petrels had the lead for the vast majority of the first half. They built up a 9-2 advantage over the game's opening four minutes, but saw Millsaps go on a 9-0 run to briefly take an 11-9 edge. The Petrels responded with a 16-7 stretch of their own over 6:45, building an 8-point lead that turned out to be their largest of the game. Down 27-19 with 6:38 to go in the period, Millsaps came back with a 12-2 run of their own to take the lead back, 31-29, with 3:36 to go until halftime. The Petrels built their lead back up to 35-31 late in the half before a Major 3-pointer brought them to within a point at the break.

"When you don't shoot well, your defense can keep you in the game if it's firing on all cylinders," said Oglethorpe head coach Philip Ponder. "However, we had our worst shooting night of the year and we couldn't get stops. It was a tough night all around, but we'll look to bounce back on Sunday."

The Petrels will now travel east to Birmingham, Alabama, to take on Birmingham-Southern Sunday at 4 p.m. Eastern. After that, they'll hit the road again next weekend for their final two games of the regular season against Sewanee in Sewanee, Tennessee, and Centre in Danville, Kentucky.