The Oglethorpe women's basketball team suffered a 64-41 loss to Millsaps in Jackson, Miss., Sunday to end the regular season with a record of 5-20, 3-11 in SAA play. This puts them in seventh place by themselves and puts them in line for a rematch with the No. 2 seed Millsaps Friday at 2 p.m. Eastern in Memphis, Tenn., for the SAA quarterfinals.
The Stormy Petrels shot 30 percent for the game while the home-standing Majors shot 44 percent from the field. In addition, they shot 50 percent from beyond the three-point arc to Oglethorpe's 19 percent and 75 percent from the free-throw line to Oglethorpe's 63 percent. They also outrebounded the Petrels, 40-32.
The Petrels were led in scoring by freshman guards Raegan Merryman and Ciara Hughes, who both scored eight points on the afternoon. Hughes added nine rebounds while Merryman passed out two assists.
The Petrels led by as many as five points in the early-going, but Millsaps slowly built an advantage over the course of the period. They took a 14-10 lead with 9:04 remaining, but the Petrels came back to tie the score, 16-16, with 7:08 remaining in the first half. However, from there, the Majors steadily built their lead, leading to a nine-point halftime advantage, 32-23.
In the second half, the Petrels went on an early 5-0 run to cut the Millsaps lead to five points, 34-29. However, the Majors went on the run that would put the game away from there. They embarked on a 19-4 run over a seven-minute period to take a 20-point advantage with just over nine minutes left. From there, the Majors cruised to the victory.
The two teams will rematch in the SAA quarterfinals Friday afternoon in Memphis, Tenn. As Rhodes won the league's regular-season title, they host the eight-team tournament. The Petrels will serve as the No. 7 seed and Millsaps the No. 2. The winner of Friday's matchup goes on to face the winner of the 3 vs. 6 matchup of Centre-Hendrix in the semifinals.