The Oglethorpe men's basketball team never trailed in the first half Friday night in Sewanee, Tennessee, but the homestanding Tigers outscored the Stormy Petrels 45-31 in the second, turning the game around en route to a 72-61 win. The result drops the Petrels to 11-13 overall and 6-7 in Southern Athletic Association play. They're now locked into at least a share of fourth place in the final league standings.
The Petrels led by as many as eight points in the first half, but Sewanee had whittled their edge to 30-27 at halftime. They immediately tied the game to start the second half and began the run that would turn the game in their favor. The Tigers began the period on a 32-15 run, in all, over a stretch of 13:30, building a 59-45 advantage with 6:28 remaining. It was their largest lead of the game and the Petrels never recovered from it.
Oglethorpe junior guard George Andino single-handedly embarked on a 7-0 run over a minute-long stretch to cut the Sewanee advantage down to 61-54, but that turned out to be as close as the Petrels would get. They pushed the Tiger lead back down to single digits after a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Chris Lawrence with 1:19 remaining, making it 66-58, but Sewanee put the game away at the free throw line from that point.
The first half saw the Petrels push out to a 13-5 edge over the game's first six minutes. Sewanee answered with five consecutive points to make it 13-10, but Oglethorpe responded by nudging out to its largest lead of the game, 18-10 with 9:52 remaining in the opening half. The Tigers came back with a 12-4 run over the next 5:15 to tie the score, 25-25, with 3:12 left until halftime. Oglethorpe pushed their lead back out to five late in the half before a Sewanee bucket made it 30-27 at the break.
The Petrels actually outshot Sewanee, sinking 51 percent of their field goal attempts when compared with the home side's 47 percent. Oglethorpe also shot 44 percent from 3-point range to just 23 percent for the Tigers. Rebounding made a huge difference for Sewanee, though, as the Tigers outrebounded the Petrels 37-20 overall and 15-3 on the offensive end. That discrepancy resulted in a 14-1 margin in second-chance points and a 30-18 one in the paint for the home team.
Individually, the Petrels were led by junior guard Connor Smith and Andino. Both scored 14 points on the night. Smith made 4-of-9 three-pointers and 2-of-2 free throws while passing out 3 assists. Meanwhile, Andino came off the bench to score his points, going 5 for 10 from the field overall and 2 for 5 from 3-point range. He also led the team with four rebounds. Sophomore guard Justin Edwards led the squad with 4 assists while also scoring 10 points and grabbing 2 steals. He finished 3 for 4 from the free throw line.
"For the second straight game, we outshot our opponent," said Oglethorpe head coach Philip Ponder. "However, for the second straight game, we also really struggled on the boards. That's been the difference in these two losses against Sewanee tonight and Birmingham-Southern on Sunday. We've got one regular season game left, so we'll focus on that and hope to head into the tournament with some momentum."
The Petrels will take on Centre Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. in Danville, Kentucky, in the final game of the regular season for both teams. Having clinched at least a share of fourth place in the SAA, the Petrels can do no worse than the No. 5 seed at the SAA Tournament next weekend in Birmingham, Alabama. They're guaranteed to be in the 4 vs. 5 quarterfinal matchup Friday, Feb. 26, against either Berry or Rhodes. If Berry loses to Sewanee or Oglethorpe beats Centre on Sunday, the Petrels will clinch the No. 4 seed. A Berry win and an Oglethorpe loss would drop the Petrels to the fifth seed.