The Oglethorpe University women's basketball team defeated Piedmont College in the opening round of the 2009 Stormy Petrel Classic on Pinholster Court on Monday night, 65-56. The win sets up a Tuesday 3:00 p.m. showdown with D3hoops.com's No. 24 ranked team, Carthage College.

The Petrels got off to a slow start against the Lions and fell behind 22-12 at the 10:15 mark of the first half. Oglethorpe, however, used a 24-9 run to close the half and take control of the game. Defense keyed the run for the Petrels as they forced 17 first half turnovers by the Lions.

Oglethorpe continued their run in the second stanza to claim a 42-32 lead with only 16 minutes remaining. The Lions rallied to make it a two point Oglethorpe lead (43-41) at the 11:34 mark before the Petrels scored seven straight to re-establish control of the game.

Freshman Sarah Giles narrowly missed converting one of the toughest feats in basketball: the triple-double. For the night the post player lead the team with 10 points and 11 rebounds to go along with a dominating 7 blocked shots. Seven other Petrels managed to post at least 5 points in the contest with Sarah Jones leading the way with 9 points. Morgan Loughery chipped in 8 points and both Taymah Jones and Riley Cerone notched 7 points apiece.

With the victory, Oglethorpe is now 6-3 on the season and will close out non-conference play tomorrow versus No. 24 Carthage at 3:00 p.m. on Pinholster Court.