The Oglethorpe men's basketball team used good free throw shooting down the stretch and an excellent second-half performance from senior guard Mike Turner to propel themselves to a 69-65 victory over Stevenson Friday afternoon at Dorough Field House in their final game of 2016. The solid non-conference win closed out the Holiday Inn Express and Suites Classic in style and improved the Stormy Petrels to 4-7 on the season. 

Turner led the Petrels in scoring on the day, putting in 20 points on 7-of-10 from the field overall and 3-of-5 from 3-point range. He scored 12 points on 4-of-5 from the field in the second half and earned a spot on the All-Classic Team for his efforts. Junior guard Chris Lawrence put up 16 points on 4-of-10 from 3-point range and 2-of-2 from the free throw line, grabbing 6 rebounds and recording 2 assists in the process. Sophomore center Tom Inungu put up 10 points and grabbed a team-high 8 rebounds, converting 3 of 3 field goal attempts and 4 of 4 free throw attempts. 

The Petrels shot 44 percent from the field for the game and 80 percent from the free throw line. That second mark included an 85 percent run from the charity stripe in the second half. Oglethorpe outscored the visiting Mustangs 14-5 off turnovers, 26-20 in the paint, and 20-10 off the bench. 

Oglethorpe pushed out to a 5-0 lead very early on, but the Mustangs outscored them 9-0 over the next 2:20 to give themselves a 9-5 edge. A 5-0 stretch later in the half gave Stevenson their largest lead of the game, 19-13, with 6:46 left in the opening period. The Petrels fought back from there, though, outscoring the visitors 13-2 over the next 3:05 and taking a 26-21 lead with 3:06 remaining in the first. The Mustangs came back to tie it, but Oglethorpe held a 33-30 edge at the halftime break.

Though the game featured six ties, only one of them occurred in the second half. After Stevenson knotted the score at 35-apiece with 17:25 to go, the Petrels embarked on an 8-2 run to push their advantage to its largest of the game at that point, 43-37, with 15:08 to go. From there, the teams traded baskets for much of the remainder of the contest, which wound up suiting the Petrels just fine.

After the visitors cut their deficit to two, Turner nailed a 3-pointer to push it back out to 46-41 with 13:43 to go, then answered a quick Stevenson basket with a layup of his own to make it 48-43 with 13:01 left. Junior guard Justin Edwards hit a 3-pointer as the shot clock wound down to give Oglethorpe a 51-45 lead with 11:13 to go, senior guard George Andino hit one to make it a 5-point game again with 9:44 left, and Inungu hit a pair of free throws at 8:22 and a layup at 7:32, both of which pushed Oglethorpe's lead back out to five. 

Oglethorpe got a 3-pointer from Lawrence with 4:24 left to give them their largest lead of the contest, a 66-58 advantage with 3:32 to go. The Mustangs went on a 6-0 run from there to get it back to a 66-64 game with 26 seconds left, but a pair of free throws by Andino gave Oglethorpe a 68-64 lead with 18 seconds remaining. The Petrels forced a miss at the other end and sophomore guard Devin Huffman secured the game-clinching rebound with 11 seconds on the clock.

The shorthanded Petrels got important minutes from several freshmen who haven't seen much of the floor this year, with guard Ty Pendley getting in the game late for his free throw shooting ability and forwards Justin Hughes and Zach Russell helping to defend Stevenson's forward-heavy lineup.

Against the big Stevenson group, the Petrels performed much better on the glass than they had been, only getting outrebounded 40-34 for the game and outrebounding them 21-18 in the first half. They also committed only 12 turnovers, including only four in the second half.

"I was really happy with the way we bounced back from a bad performance last night with a good win today," said Oglethorpe head coach Philip Ponder. "We were much improved in really every area: turnovers, offensive execution, defense, rebounding and intensity. We still have a long way to go, but this was a step in the right direction."

The Petrels will next take the floor on Monday evening, when they travel across town to Atlanta's Druid Hills neighborhood to take on Emory. After that, they'll return home to get set for their SAA home opener on Friday, Jan. 6, against Centre.