The Oglethorpe men's basketball team picked up its biggest win of the season so far Sunday afternoon, knocking off the No. 19 Centre Colonels 81-79 at Dorough Field House on a buzzer-beating layup by freshman guard Justin Day. The win improved the Stormy Petrels to 14-10 overall and 8-5 in SAA play, moving them into a second-place tie with Hendrix with a single game left to play.
With the score tied 74-74 and 1:20 left, Day sank a jump shot with 45 seconds remaining to give his team a 76-74 edge. Junior forward Josh Cammon sank a pair of free throws after a Centre miss and extended the Oglethorpe advantage to 78-74 with 25 seconds on the clock. Centre's Art Walker quickly buried a 3-pointer at the other end to make it 78-77 with 15 seconds left, keeping themselves in the game. Junior guard Dimetri Chambers went 1-for-2 at the free throw line to keep the score 79-77, giving the visitors a chance to tie. Perry Ayers got fouled for the Colonels with 6 seconds left and made both free throws to tie the game. Day took the ball in the backcourt, drove past a defender at the top of the key, and got to the basket, laying the ball off the glass. The ball hung on the rim as the buzzer sounded, then dropped through, giving the Petrels the victory and setting off a wild celebration at Dorough.
The Petrels equaled their largest lead of the game with a 3-pointer from Chambers on the first possession of the second half, giving his team a 42-33 advantage. Centre outscored the home side 10-4 over the next 3 minutes to pull back to within 3 points, 46-43, with 16:45 on the clock. The teams went back and forth for awhile, but the Colonels went on an 11-0 spurt midway through the period to suddenly take a 60-53 lead with 11 minutes to go. The Petrels responded with a 10-3 run of their own to pull the game back even, 70-70, with 4:10 on the clock.
Oglethorpe took an early 15-8 lead with just over 12 minutes to go, but Centre eventually scored 7 straight points over a 1:20 stretch to tie the score 22-22 with 7:40 left. The home side embarked on a 15-6 stretch to build a 39-30 lead at halftime.
Chambers led the team with 25 points on 4-of-8 from 3-point range. Cammon recorded a double-double, scoring 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting and 4-of-4 from the foul line while grabbing 10 boards. Sophomore guard Carlos Sone added 10 points and a team-high four assists. Day finished with 11 points on the afternoon.
"This was a big-time win today against a really good basketball team!" said Oglethorpe head coach Philip Ponder. "I thought our energy was great from start to finish. To lose in such a heart-breaking fashion on Friday night and bounce back the way we did today shows a lot of heart and character. I'm really proud of these guys."
The Petrels close out their regular season Saturday at Berry, with the game tipping off at 7 p.m. The Petrels and Hendrix currently sit a game ahead of Berry and Millsaps, with the possibility of grabbing anywhere from the No. 2 seed in the SAA Tournament to the No. 5 seed, depending on the results of the final week of the season.