The Oglethorpe men's basketball team advanced to the SAA Tournament championship game for the second time in program history Friday with an 83-72 win over third-seeded Birmingham-Southern at the Cage Center in Mount Berry, Georgia. It marked the Stormy Petrels' first trip to the conference title game since 2014.
The second-seeded Petrels led just 41-38 at halftime, but they exploded out of the gates in the second half with an 18-4 run over the opening six minutes of the period. The stretch essentially decided the game, with Birmingham-Southern unable to really get back into the contest after that.
Oglethorpe led 59-42 at the 13:57 mark after the big run to start the second half. The Panthers went on a 13-5 run to cut the Petrel advantage to 67-58 at the 8:35 mark. Oglethorpe pushed it back out to a 15-point game with 5:36 on the clock, though, as they went on a short 9-3 spurt to push their lead back out. BSC made one more push, using a 9-2 stretch of their own to cut the Oglethorpe lead to 78-70 at the 2:37 mark. They got no closer, though, and the Petrels cruised home with the 11-point win.
BSC led 18-14, their largest advantage of the contest, with 12:20 left in the opening half of play. However, the Petrels responded with an 11-2 run to take a 25-20 lead at the 9:46 mark. The Panthers fought back again and the two teams traded the lead for much of the remainder of the half. BSC led 38-35 at the 2:54 mark, but Oglethorpe finished with 6 straight points to take a 3-point lead into the break.
Senior guard Dimetri Chambers led the Petrels with 33 points on 6-of-13 from 3-point range. He also grabbed eight rebounds. Fellow senior guard Lane Foster added 18 points, three assists and three steals.
Birmingham-Southern outshot the Petrels on the night, 45.8-to-45 percent from the field overall and 39.4-to-35.1 percent from 3-point range. However, the Petrels forced 17 BSC turnovers while committing just seven, and outscored the Panthers 16-4 off those takeaways and 10-5 off the fast break. In addition, Oglethorpe outscored the Panthers 20-9 off second chance points.
"Tonight was a good win," said Oglethorpe head coach Philip Ponder. "I thought we played well on both ends of the court. The big difference in the game was that we won the turnover battle and the offensive rebound battle [16-11], which allowed us to get 16 more shot attempts than them. We played especially well in the second half. We know we have our work cut out for us tomorrow, but we are looking forward to the challenge and excited to be playing in the championship game."
The Petrels will take on top-seeded Berry, the tournament host, for the championship Saturday at 2 p.m. The Vikings swept Oglethorpe in two games at the Cage Center Feb. 26-27 to claim the SAA regular season title.