The Oglethorpe men's basketball team won their second game of the weekend and their eighth out of their last 10 Sunday afternoon at Dorough Field House, besting the Birmingham-Southern Panthers 72-67 in a tight game throughout, With the win, the Stormy Petrels improved to 11-7 on the season overall and 5-2 in SAA play, putting them in a second-place tie with Hendrix at just a game back of first-place Centre.
Birmingham-Southern took an early lead, going on a 7-0 run to open the game. The Petrels fought back with 7 straight of their own, though, tying the score at the 16:40 mark. The Panthers went on an 8-0 mini-run later in the half to take a 19-13 lead with 9:25 left, but Oglethorpe again fought back with a 14-3 run to take a 27-22 advantage with 4:35 on the clock. The home side entered the locker room with a 38-34 edge.
Oglethorpe pushed their advantage out to a game-high 9 points with a 5-0 run, giving themselves a 43-34 lead with 18:40 remaining. The Petrels maintained an arm's length advantage for much of the second half, but the Panthers went on several runs to get back into the game, including an 11-2 push to give them a 57-56 lead with 8:15 left. The Petrels responded with 8 straight to take the lead back, 64-59, with 4:20 on the clock. The home side held off their challengers, making free throws down the stretch to secure the 5-point win.
Junior guard Dimetri Chambers enjoyed his seventh straight 20-point game, pouring in 23 on 4-of-5 from the charity stripe. Junior forward Josh Cammon added 10 points on 5-of-6 from the line while grabbing eight rebounds, three blocks and three steals. Sophomore guard Carlos Sone scored 11 points on 5-of-6 from the foul line with seven rebounds.
The Petrels held Birmingham-Southern to just 36.4 percent shooting from the field while converting on 82.6 percent of their foul shots. Oglethorpe forced 16 Panther turnovers and scored 25 points off those takeaways. Those stats offset the Petrels' 37.7 percent success rate from the field.
"This was a hard-fought win," said Oglethorpe head coach Philip Ponder. "Neither team seemed to be able to get a lot of momentum and the game stayed close throughout. We didn't shoot particularly well today, but out defense held them well below their scoring average, and helped us get a really good win. Getting the sweep this weekend was huge!"