The Oglethorpe women's basketball team continued its undefeated streak Friday evening, beating the homestanding Hendrix Warriors 86-55 to improve to 5-0 on the season and give the program 32 straight wins overall and 22 straight over SAA opposition. The win also served as a milestone for Head Coach Alex Richey, who passed Ron Sattele as the winningest coach in program history by collecting his 117th career victory.
Richey has enjoyed a similar level of success to Sattele over the course of his young career so far. He sits at 117-57 all-time, while Sattele finished his career at 116-58. Sattele led his teams to four NCAA tournament appearances and a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference championship, while Richey is currently sitting on three NCAA appearances and two SAA titles. Richey led his team to the sectional round of the NCAA tournament in 2020 for the first time since Sattele's group accomplished the feat in 2009.
"I couldn't be more grateful for the incredible efforts of the players and coaching staff, who deserve so much credit in helping this program achieve all that it has over the last six-plus seasons," said Richey. "When I was hired, we knew that Coach Sattele had provided a blueprint for how incredible things could be accomplished at Oglethorpe. Although our coaching styles are different, his philosophy in regard to the importance of creating lasting relationships has certainly been an inspiration to me in my development as a coach."
In the victory, the Petrels jumped out to a big lead early and never looked back, never trailing in the contest. They led 21-10 after the first quarter and 47-24 at the halftime break. They built their lead to as many as 37 points as they went into the third quarter, eventually taking a 67-30 lead at the 3:35 mark of the period.
The Petrels shot 41.3 percent from the field while holding the Warriors to 28.1 percent. They outrebounded their opponent 53-40 and forced 24 turnovers, turning those takeaways into a 30-6 advantage off of turnovers. Oglethorpe outscored Hendrix 13-2 in second chance points, 48-12 in the paint, 12-6 on the fast break and 50-18 off the bench.
Senior center Savannah LeGate led the Petrels with 13 points on 5-of-9 from the field and seven rebounds over just 13 minutes of play. Freshman forward Omotese Ajorgbor got her first career start and finished with 10 points and five boards. Sophomore guard Reyna Buggs scored 12 points off the bench, sinking 6 of 6 free throw attempts and passing out four assists in the process.
The Petrels will be back in action Saturday afternoon, when they complete their two-game set with Hendrix at 2 p.m. Eastern from Grove Gymnasium in Conway, Arkansas.