The Oglethorpe women's basketball team outscored the homestanding Covenant Scots 14-8 in the third quarter Tuesday evening, then used several key stops on the defensive end to hold on for a 55-49 victory on Lookout Mountain against a previously unbeaten Covenant team. The win served as the third in a row for the Stormy Petrels, and improved them to 5-3 on the season.
The Scots outshot the Petrels on the day, converting on 36 percent of their field goal attempts to Oglethorpe's 33 percent, and on 29 percent of their 3-pointers to the Petrels' 18 percent. However, the visitors forced 26 Covenant turnovers and scored 14 points off of those takeaways. In addition, they outscored the Scots 13-9 off second-chance points and 20-14 off the bench.
Sophomore forward Lauren Ransom led the Petrels once again, scoring 11 points and grabbing 12 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season. She also recorded 3 blocks on the evening and converted 3 of 4 free throw attempts. Sophomore guard Jada Triplett contributed 10 points and finished with a game-high 5 assists, while sophomore point guard Bailey Charles added 10 points of her own on 5-of-6 from the line. She also tied for a team-high 3 steals with freshman forward Karlymarie Dyer.
Oglethorpe got the game off to a good start, bouncing out to a 7-2 advantage a little over two minutes into the proceedings. Covenant answered with a 7-0 run of their own to take the lead, but the Petrels responded in kind with an 8-0 spurt to build a 15-9 advantage with 1:47 remaining in the opening quarter. The Scots used five straight points to cut it back to one, but the Petrels led 17-14 after the first period.
The teams traded baskets for the majority of the second quarter, with Covenant outscoring Oglethorpe 15-14 over the course of the stanza. The Petrels still held a 31-29 edge at the halftime break.
After an initial Covenant basket tied the game to begin the third quarter, the Petrels began taking control of the contest. They embarked on a 14-5 spurt over the next 7:20 to take a 45-36 lead with 25 seconds remaining in the period, then extended that to start the fourth quarter. In all, Oglethorpe pushed their advantage out to 12 points with an 18-6 stretch over 11:40 to take their largest lead of the game, 49-37, with 6:09 remaining.
From that point, though, the Scots started to work their way back into the game. They used a 12-0 run over four minutes to tie the score, 49-49, with 2:16 to go. However, it was the Petrels who made key plays down the stretch. They got key free throws from Charles and Ransom, as well as a big offensive board and put-back from the latter with 19 seconds to go, to pull away to the 55-49 victory.
"They outshot us from the field, percentage-wise, but our defense in the third quarter was the difference in the game," said Oglethorpe head coach Alex Richey. "Any time you can hold a team to single digits in a quarter, that's doing a good job. Once again, defense has to travel to win on the road, and we got it done on that end. We got huge contributions off the bench tonight, and this was a total team win. It'll be nice to finally play some home games before the holiday after playing seven of our first eight away from home."
The Petrels return to Dorough Field House with a pair of games over the weekend. They'll take on Maryville (Tennessee) on Saturday and North Carolina Wesleyan on Sunday, with both games starting at 4 p.m. After that, they'll host the Holiday Inn Express and Suites Classic the following weekend, welcoming Huntingdon, Methodist and Centre to campus.