The Oglethorpe women's basketball team clinched at least a share of their second SAA regular season title in three years and secured the No. 1 seed in the upcoming SAA Tournament Sunday afternoon, holding on late to a 78-71 win over the Rhodes Lynx at Mallory Gymnasium in Memphis, Tennessee. It marked the program's third conference regular season title and their second in the SAA era. The Stormy Petrels also continued their undefeated run in conference play, bringing their SAA record to 11-0, while continuing their record-setting overall pace at 21-1.
After a back-and-forth opening quarter in which the teams traded baskets and finished knotted 18-18, the Petrels built the advantage they would hang onto for much of the second half over the game's second 10 minutes. They began the second quarter on a 17-6 run over 4 minutes, building a 35-24 lead with 6 minutes remaining until halftime. After Rhodes scored a couple of baskets and cut it to 35-29, Oglethorpe answered with 7 straight points late in the half to push their lead out to a 13-point bulge, 42-29. They entered halftime with a 42-31 advantage, having outscored the Lynx 24-13 over the course of the period.
The teams traded baskets early in the third quarter, but the home side started working their way back into the game with an 8-0 run over 2:50 to cut the Oglethorpe advantage to just 50-47 with 3:40 left in the period. Oglethorpe closed the quarter on a 6-0 run to build a 58-49 lead at the quarter break, though, and extended that to an 11-0 stretch with their first two baskets of the fourth quarter, building their largest lead of the game, 63-49, with 7:05 remaining. Rhodes rolled off 8 straight to give themselves a chance down by 6 with 4:40 to go, but consecutive baskets from the visitors put them back ahead by 11 points, 70-59, with 3:15 left. Oglethorpe held them off from there, securing the 7-point win.
Junior guard Taylor Smith led the way for the Petrels with 18 points, 13 rebounds, six steals and four assists. Junior center Savannah LeGate added 20 points on 9-of-15 from the floor and 12 boards. Sophomore guard Nikki Reed contributed 15 points on 5-of-10 from the floor and 4-of-4 from the foul line, passing out four assists.
The Petrels outrebounded Rhodes 22-14 on the offensive glass, outscoring them 28-11 off turnovers and by a whopping 50-18 in the paint.
"We are very excited to achieve one of our team goals this year: winning the conference in the regular season," said Oglethorpe head coach Alex Richey. "This team has been so enjoyable to work with because of their unselfishness both on and off the court. They truly love one another and I couldn't be more proud of their character. We are soaking up all the moments that we can during this special run we are on, and we hope that we have a lot of great basketball to be played."
Oglethorpe starts their final home weekend of SAA regular season play Friday night, when they host Sewanee at 6 p.m. on Senior Night. After that, they'll take on Centre at 1 p.m. Sunday from Dorough Field House.