The Oglethorpe men's basketball team extended their winning streak to four games on Sunday afternoon in Birmingham, Ala., picking up their first-ever victory at Birmingham-Southern in the process, a 91-84 win over the homestanding Panthers. The victory improves the team to 14-3, 5-1 in SAA play, and puts them alone in second place in the league.

Birmingham-Southern has proved especially difficult to beat at home since dropping to Division III and joining the SCAC, having held a 68-3 record in Birmingham over the last six years coming into this contest. However, the Stormy Petrels pushed out to a 10-point advantage in the first half and never let up after that. The Panthers came back to within three later in the opening period, but Oglethorpe pushed the lead back out to a 10-point bulge and held a 12-point edge at halftime. In the second half, they built their lead to a game high of 14 points with 9:32 remaining and never let BSC get any closer than four points. The Petrels made free throws down the stretch to secure the seven-point victory.

The Petrels shot 50.9 percent from the field over the course of the game and held BSC to 47.4 percent shooting from the field and 36.4 percent from long range. In addition, the Petrels converted on 75 percent of their free throw attempts, sinking 27 free throws in all, compared with BSC's 62.9 percent. The Panthers committed just one more turnover than the Petrels did, but Oglethorpe was able to outscore them 21-12 off those turnovers.

Individually, the Petrels again got several excellent performances, with sophomore Romello Bates having perhaps his best game of the season thus far. He scored a team-high 17 points on 4-of-7 shooting and 9-of-12 from the free-throw line. He also added six rebounds, four assists and two steals. Freshman Chris Lawrence had one of his best games of the season, as well, scoring 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting and 3-of-6 from three-point range off the bench. Senior Jordan Kinney added 15 points on 6-of-11 from the floor.

BSC led by as many as four early in the first half, holding a 13-9 edge with 12:05 remaining in the opening period. However, the Petrels began a huge run at that point, scoring 14 straight over the next four minutes and building a 23-13 lead with 8:11 to go in the half. The Panthers answered with a 10-3 run of their own, cutting the Oglethorpe lead back to 26-23 with 5:09 left, but the Petrels were able to push back out to arm's length before the break, finishing the period on a 14-5 run and taking a 44-32 lead into the locker room.

Birmingham-Southern began the second half like they had the first half, starting with a 12-4 run over the opening 2:30 to cut the Oglethorpe lead back down to four points, 48-44. The Petrels immediately pushed it back out to their largest lead of the game to that point with a 9-0 run that put them up 57-44 with 14:57 remaining in the game. A 9-4 mini-run that followed gave the Petrels their largest lead of the contest, 68-54 with 9:32 left. From there, the two teams traded baskets for much of the remainder of the contest, which suited Oglethorpe just fine. BSC was able to cut the Petrel advantage to eight points, 83-75, with 1:10 left, but they wouldn't get any closer until the final seconds of the game. 

"Today was a big win for us," said Head Coach Philip Ponder. "Birmingham-Southern has been very tough to beat at home since they joined Division III. I loved our intensity today from every single player, from the starters to the bench guys. It was truly a team win this afternoon."

Having started out 3-0 on this five-game road swing, the Petrels will complete the stretch of road contests next weekend. They'll first travel to Sewanee, Tenn., on Friday at 9 p.m. Eastern before continuing on to Danville, Ky., where they'll take on old nemesis Centre at 3 p.m.