On a night when senior guard Emily Buck passed the 1,000 point mark for her career, the Oglethorpe women's basketball team faced an uphill battle against a tough Rhodes team Friday night in Memphis, Tennessee, falling 70-52 in the end. The result drops the Stormy Petrels to 7-8 on the season overall, 2-3 in Southern Athletic Association play.

Buck passing the 1,000-point mark added a bright spot to the evening. With nine seconds remaining in the first half, she drilled a 3-pointer to give herself 7 points for the game and 1,000 for her career. She became the ninth Stormy Petrel women's basketball player to pass the millennial mark and the first since Biz Richmann late in the 2008-09 season. In addition to holding her spot in the top 10 in school history with 1,003 career points, Buck sits third in school history with a 78.8 career free throw percentage and 11th with a career scoring average of 10.9 points per game. 

For the game, Buck finished with 10 points on 2-of-3 three-point shooting. Freshman forward Lauren Ransom scored 13 points, as well, while freshman guard Bailey Charles passed out a team-high 3 assists. 

The Petrels trailed by as many as 18 points late in the first half, but came storming back in the third quarter. They outscored the homestanding Lynx 18-10 over the course of the stanza in all. The Oglethorpe run began late in the first half, when they outscored Rhodes 7-3 over the final 90 seconds of the second quarter. That continued into the third and, in all, the Petrels went on a 25-11 run over 10 minutes of action, cutting the home team's lead to just four points, 45-41, with 33 seconds to go in the third quarter.

Rhodes responded with a run of their own, however. From the point where Oglethorpe cut the lead to 45-41, they went on a 12-4 spurt over the next three minutes, building a 57-45 lead with 7:38 left in the game. After the Petrels cut it back to a 9-point game with 7:28 remaining, the Lynx outscored the Petrels 13-4 over the remainder of the game, pulling away to an 18-point victory.

Rhodes quickly ran out to a big lead early in the game, finding themselves with a 15-5 advantage at the 1:54 mark of the first quarter. After Oglethorpe sank two baskets in a row to end the period, the Lynx went back on a run, outscoring the Petrels 19-6 over the opening 8:30 of the second quarter en route to their 18-point advantage.

For the game, Oglethorpe shot 36 percent from the field and had to contend with Rhodes shooting at a 47 percent clip. The Lynx shot 41 percent from 3-point range and and 75 percent from the free throw line, as well, compared with 30 and 50 percent, respectively, for the Petrels. Oglethorpe did force 22 Rhodes turnovers and scored 21 points off of them, while Rhodes scored just 14 points off the Petrels' 21 turnovers. The visitors also outscored the Lynx 34-24 in the paint.

"All credit to Rhodes, as they played better than we did," said Head Coach Alex Richey. "They shot the ball really well and executed. We'll have to take this as an opportunity to learn and move forward to Sunday."

"I'm proud of Emily, though," said Richey. "I know everyone involved would've preferred her milestone come during a win, but scoring 1,000 career points is a testament to how much she's meant to this program and how well she's played over her 4-year career."

The road doesn't get any easier for the Petrels on Sunday, as they'll travel to Conway, Arkansas, to take on a Hendrix team that's 13-3 on the year overall and tied for first in the SAA at 4-1 coming in. After that, they'll return home next weekend to take on Sewanee and Centre.