The Oglethorpe men's basketball team routed Toccoa Falls Saturday night, 90-53, at Dorough Field House in their home opener.

The game came against a Toccoa Falls team that played only six players due to suspensions and the Stormy Petrels took full advantage of that in the second half, running the visiting Eagles ragged.

Toccoa Falls held in pretty well in the first half, though, as the Petrels led only 34-29 at the break. Oglethorpe never led by more than six in the period and Toccoa Falls had a one-point lead, 25-24, with 3:48 remaining in the stanza. The Petrels started the half leading 5-0. Toccoa Falls cut it to 7-6,  but sophomore forward Victor Rohlfs put it back out to 9-6 as he drained the first three baskets of the game for the Petrels. Oglethorpe then went on a 7-2 run to extend their lead to six, 16-10, with 10:40 remaining in the half. They still had a 6-point lead, 20-14 with 9:04 left, when the Eagles went on a 7-0 run to take their first lead of the game, 21-20. From there, Oglethorpe closed the half on a 10-4 run to push the lead to five at halftime.

In the second half, the Petrels made a concerted effort to play extremely uptempo on offense and implement a full-court press on defense in an attempt to wear 6-man Toccoa Falls down. The strategy worked.

The home team started the half on a 19-1 run over the first six minutes of the period, immediately extending their lead to 23 points, 53-30. The Petrels embarked on two runs in the second half that completely put the game away. The first was a 13-4 run over three minutes, ending with a 71-42 lead with 6:25 remaining. Then, after a couple of buckets from Toccoa Falls, the Petrels broke off a 14-3 run over a 3:30 span, giving themselves  their largest lead of the game, a 37-point edge, with 2:03 remaining. The squad cruised home from there with the 37-point victory.

Senior guard Tyler Courson had a whale of a second half, pouring in 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including 3-of-5 from beyond the arc. Sophomore guard Drew Patrick owned the first half with 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting. While the two teams were within five percentage points of each other in the first half, the Petrels blitzed Toccoa Falls from the floor in the second, shooting 57.5 percent to 28 percent for the Eagles. The Petrels also outshot Toccoa Falls from 3-point range, shooting 50 percent from distance in the second half to Toccoa Falls's 25 percent. The Petrels also forced 16 Eagles turnovers in the second half.

For the game, the Petrels shot 52.1 percent while Toccoa Falls shot 35.1. Toccoa Falls turned the ball over 22 times to Oglethorpe's 12, and the Petrels outrebounded Toccoa Falls, 40-36. Individually, Courson finished with 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting, including 4-of-9 three-point shooting. He was also 2-for-2 from the line. Patrick contributed 18 total points on 8-of-13 shooting and pulled down eight rebounds. Meanwhile, Rohlfs finished with 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting and junior guard Alex Davis dished out seven assists and grabbed eight rebounds.

With the win, the Petrels improve to 4-0 on the young season. They'll return to Dorough Field House to take on in-state opponent Covenant at 8 p.m. Tuesday before embarking on their Thanksgiving weekend trip to LaGrange, Ga., for the LaGrange Classic.