ATLANTA — The Oglethorpe Stormy Petrels have caught fire in the second leg of Southern Athletic Association play, as they extended their winning streak to four games with a 101-91 win over the Panthers of Birmingham Southern College.

Oglethorpe broke 100 points on the scoreboard for the second time this season. The Petrels dropped 101 on Warren Wilson in their season opener earlier this season. With this fourth consecutive win, Oglethorpe moved to 11-9 on the season and 5-5 in SAA play, in a three-way tie for third with Berry College, who the Petrels play as their regular-season finale, and Birmingham-Southern College, who they just beat.

The Stormy Petrels flew out to an early 14-3 lead in the early minutes of the first quarter, shooting 7-8 from the field with a scoring effort involving five Petrels.

The scoring did not stop there. Oglethorpe continued to finish baskets scoring 27 total first-quarter points almost doubling the Panthers' 14 points. Keimarya Rivera was responsible for eight points and Morgan Skipper following with six of her own while two Petrels dropped four points each.

Oglethorpe shot 70% from the field and 100% from the free-throw line in the first quarter.

Oglethorpe stayed true in the second quarter as the Petrels dropped another 27 points, once again led by freshman and Atlanta native Skipper with 11 in the quarter and Rivera's six. Other contributions from Gabby Hudson, Olivia Tucker and Rose Dolmovich led the Petrels to go 11-17 from the field and 50 percent from beyond the 3-point arc. The Panthers managed to put up 23 points in the second quarter, but it was not enough as the Petrels took the lead 54-37 heading into halftime. 

The Panthers' offense sparked coming out of the half and scored 33 points in the third quarter, while Oglethorpe responded with 18 points. The Petrels got to the line for eight free-throw attempts in the third and sunk six of them while shooting 6-11 from the field during the quarter.

Rivera's six and freshman Mahkayla Premo's four with Tucker's four led Oglethorpe's scoring efforts coming out of the half. The score at the end of the third quarter was much closer than it was at the half. Oglethorpe held a two-point lead at 72-70 going into the final quarter of action.

The final quarter of the game was an eight-Petrel effort to drop 29 fourth-quarter points while pushing the Petrels past the 100-point mark for the second time this season. Oglethorpe went nearly flawless from the free-throw line shooting 11-12 from the stripe, 2-2 from beyond the 3-point arc, and 8-13 shooting from the field while holding the Panthers to 21 to secure the 101-91 win over BSC.

With eight Petrels contributing to the scoring effort in the final quarter, again Skipper led the pack, this time with eight points finishing with 25 points on the night shooting 50% from beyond the three. 

Rivera followed and finished with 22 points and nine rebounds once again just shy of another double-double. She shot 8-9 from the free-throw line to help push the Petrels past the Panthers.

The redshirt sophomore and local Atlanta product Olivia Tucker had an almost perfect performance shooting 4-4 from the field, 2-2 from the three-point line, and 3-4 at the free-throw line while also dishing out three assists. Mahkayla Premo also filled out the stat sheet recording 12 points on the night shooting 6-8 from the free-throw line while grabbing six rebounds with four assists to tag along.

Game Notes

• Skipper's 25 points more than doubled her career high.
• Rivera's 22 marked her eighth 20-point game of the season and 13th in double figures.
• This is the Petrels longest winning stream of the season at four games. They previously held a three-game streak prior to the break.
• Oglethorpe leads the head-to-head battle with Birmingham Southern 19-16 since 2007.
• Two of the last four and four of the last seven meetings have seen the Petrels hit the century mark.
• Oglethorpe moved up to third in SAA standing.

Up Next

Oglethorpe looks to extend its SAA winning streak to five games this weekend as they host the Majors of Millsaps College. Tip-off is set for Sunday, Feb. 5, at 1 p.m.