ATLANTA – With the score all tied and less than five seconds to go, Dylan Pumpian sank a game-winning 3-pointer to send the Oglethorpe men's basketball team to a 69-66 victory over visiting Centre Sunday in a Southern Athletic Association game. The win solidified a home tournament game for the Stormy Petrels.

Close the whole way, the game saw 18 ties and 24 lead changes with neither team leading by more than six points. Eight Petrels were in the scoring column, led by Malachi Dooley with 21 points and five rebounds.

"That was a big-time win," said Head Coach Philip Ponder. "Basically, we needed to win today in order to host our first-round game next Sunday. Not only are we excited for the win, but we are excited to host next week. That was a hard-fought game by both teams, but our guys made some big plays the last few minutes to clinch the win."

Perry Robinson followed with 17 points and seven rebounds, while Jordan James and Uba Ezigbo recorded eight points each. Dooley, Robinson and Pumpian each made three assists, and Mason Kemp had three steals.

Robinson was quick to open the game with a good jumper, but Centre managed a small run to build a decent lead, and Oglethorpe slowly tried to catch up. The Petrels then mounted an 8-0 run to move to 14-10 lead. The rest of the period saw a lot of back-and-forth, several ties and tiebreaking plays, until teams headed into halftime at 32-32.

Centre was the first to break the tie in the second half, but Oglethorpe quickly pushed back into the lead after a 3-pointer from Dooley. Just like the first period, the second half was full of back-and-forth. With just 14 seconds on the clock, the Colonels tied things up at 66-66. With the threat of overtime, Pumpian swooped in with a last-second 3-pointer to win the game at 69-66.

Oglethorpe made 10 fastbreak points versus Centre's 4.

Up Next

The Stormy Petrels will head to Berry for their final game of the regular season on Wednesday, Feb. 14, at 8 p.m. The SAA tournament will begin Sunday, Feb. 18, with Oglethorpe hosting its quarterfinal game. The semifinals and final will be hosted by the highest remaining seed.