ROME, Ga.—The final round of the Southern Athletic Association tournament came down to the very end. Oglethorpe and Berry went back and forth with seven lead changes, but Berry took the SAA title 63-62.
Stormy Petrels Dimetri Chambers and Lane Foster were named to the All-Tournament team for their efforts.
Oglethorpe looked poised for the victory after a 21-10 run starting near the 12-minute mark of the first half gave them a 33-29 lead at the break. The Petrels held Berry to 3-for-13 from the field in that stretch.
But early in the second half, Berry went on an 18-6 run, heating up from the perimeter with a 4-for-7 effort from three in that stretch which ignited their home crowd. Berry ended up shooting 7-for-11 (64%) from three in the second half.
Oglethorpe and Berry traded lead-changing 3-pointers on three straight possessions starting near the four-minute mark of the second half. Chambers' last three on that sequence gave the Petrels the lead at 57-56, but it would be their last as Berry quickly answered with a 7-3 run over the next three minutes.
Foster scored Oglethorpe's final basket to cut the deficit to one with 12 seconds left. The Petrels then had a chance to win it with 6.1 seconds left after a Berry missed free throw but were unable to get a shot off before time expired.
"The outcome of a certain play or an individual game does not define us," said Head Coach Philip Ponder after the game. "Whether we had scored on that final play or whether we had won today has zero impact on what this team is and how I feel about this group. This was a great team, a great season, and a great group. I hate that we came up short, and I am going to miss these seniors."
Chambers led all scorers with 31 points. This was his 43rd career game scoring 20 or more and 14th career game scoring 30 or more. He scored 31 or more in five of the last 10 games of his career on the way to 1,445 points for the Petrels. Chambers scored 2,201 career points combining 756 points he scored at Bridgewater for a collegiate scoring average of 19.8 points per game. He averaged 23.3 as a Stormy Petrel.
Other Petrels in the scoring column included Uba Ezigbo with nine, Foster with eight and Jack Murrah with seven. Carlos Sone also contributed nine rebounds.
"Congratulations to Berry," Ponder added. "This was a great basketball game involving two great teams. They were one play better than us today."
This loss concluded the 2021-2022 season for Oglethorpe men's basketball, which finished with a 19-8 (11-3 SAA) record as runner-up for both the regular season and tournament championships.
