Colonels fall to Oglethorpe in final minute
Trailing by one point with 0:29, the Centre College women's basketball team missed a last-second lay-up to fall to Oglethorpe University 66-65 in a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference game (SCAC), Friday, Feb. 16, in Danville, Ky.
With the loss, the Colonels have now lost five straight games to fall to 5-16 overall and 2-11 in the SCAC. Oglethorpe has now won five straight games to improve to 19-5 overall and 11-2 in league play.
Centre's hopes of qualifying for the SCAC tournament also ended with the loss. The Colonels needed to win both of its final regular season games to qualify for the SCAC Tournament and even with a win over Sewanee-University of the South Sunday, Centre would only tie Sewanee for the final spot and would end up on the outside looking in due to the tiebreaker. The Stormy Petrals opened the game with a lay-up to take a 2-0 lead, but that would be the last lead they would see the first half. Ahead 19-17 with just under 10 minutes to play in the opening period, the Colonels went on a 9-3 run to push their lead to 28-20 with 5:04 on the clock.
Oglethorpe answered with a 6-1 run to cut the lead to 29-26, only to see Centre push the lead back to six points (34-28) before going into the locker room with a four-point advantage (34-30).
A 6-2 run by the Stormy Petrals to open the half, gave Oglethorpe its first lead (38-36) since the opening minutes of the game. The Stormy Petrals pushed the lead to seven points (49-42) with 11:12 remaining, but back to back to back Centre three pointers put the Colonels back ahead 51-49.
The next 7:25 went back and forth with six lead changes and five ties. After an Oglethorpe lay-up at the 2:07 mark tied the score at 64 apiece, freshman guard Chelsea Goodman (Harrodsburg, Ky.) was fouled and made one of her two free throw attempts to give Centre a 65-64 lead with 1:12 left to play.
With 0:33 on the clock, the Stormy Petrals' Anna Findley missed a three-point attempt, but Tina Grace grabbed the offensive rebound and put it back for the go-ahead basket and a 66-65 Oglethorpe lead. Following two timeouts, Centre had the ball with 0:10 left and a chance to win, but a missed lay-up and an Oglethorpe defensive rebound sealed the win for the Stormy Petrals.
Oglethorpe shot 51.1% (13-22) in the second half to finish at 44.0% (24-47) on the evening, while Centre was limited to only 29.0 (9-31) in the second half finishing at 37.9% (22-58) for the game. The Colonels committed eight less turnovers (28-20) in the game but were out rebounded 38-32 in the defeat.
Grace led four Stormy Petrals in double figures with a game-high 20 points and seven rebounds. Katie Kulavic scored 14 points. Findley finished with 12 points and Jasmine Johnson added 10 points and seven rebounds.
Freshman Jenny Jones (Stanford, Ky.) scored a season-high 15 points to lead three Centre players in double figures. Goodman scored 14 points and grabbed a game-high eight rebounds and freshman guard Chrystal Claunch (Harrodsburg, Ky.) added 10 points and three steals.
Centre will conclude its 2006-07 season Sunday, Feb. 18, when it hosts Sewanee in a SCAC contest. The game will be played as part of a men's/women's doubleheader and will begin at 3 p.m. in Danville, Ky. |
