The Oglethorpe men's basketball team picked up a big win in Demorest, Ga., Tuesday night, as they defeated home-standing Piedmont by the score of 84-71 to improve to 2-0 on the season.

The Petrels fell behind 8-3 very early and were only leading 17-14 at the 10:13 mark of the first half. They went on a mini-run to extend the lead to 26-19 with 7:30 remaining in the half. Then, over the next six minutes, they went on an 18-1 run that would turn out to be the difference in the game. Senior guard Branden Jovaag buried three straight baskets to cap off the run, and the Petrels had a 44-20 lead with a minute left in the half. They would go into the locker room with a 44-26 lead.

The two teams traded baskets in the second half as the Petrels maintained a lead of around 20 points for the majority of the period. They had a 22-point lead, 84-62, with two minutes remaining in the game. Piedmont went on a last-minute run to make the final score a more respectable 84-71.

Jovaag had a huge game for the Petrels, scoring 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting, including 6-of-11 from beyond-the-arc. Freshman guard Drew Patrick came through with a big performance off the bench, scoring 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting, including 3-of-5 from long range. He also added six rebounds and four assists. Senior guard Christian Molinet added 11 points of his own on 4-of-6 shooting, 2-of-2 from three, and junior guard Tyler Courson chipped in seven on 3-of-7 shooting. Courson also passed out a game-high six assists.

The Petrels shot 53 percent on the night, including 47 percent from beyone the three-point line. They hit 15 threes in all, and wound up with a three-to-two assist-to-turnover ratio, tallying 21 assists while turning the ball over only 14 times.

The 2-0 Petrels will next be in action this weekend, when they host the Oglethorpe Thanksgiving Classic. They will play Maryville at 6 p.m. Saturday and LaGrange at 4 p.m. Sunday. Emory is the other team taking part in the Classic, and they will play LaGrange and Maryville, as well, over the course of the weekend.