MILLIGAN COLLEGE, Tenn. (Dec. 3, 2014) â€" Poor shooting doomed the Milligan College men's basketball team to its second loss of the season Wednesday night, a 78-72, overtime loss to Truett-McConnell College in an Appalachian Athletic Conference contest.
 
Milligan (9-2, 4-1 AAC) suffered its second loss of the season and first within the league, falling to a TMC (5-6, 3-2 AAC) team that took the Buffs to double overtime in the first meeting of last season. The Buffs won that one 91-88 before taking the season sweep of the Bears with a 21-point win at home last February.
 
Milligan shot 32.9 percent from the floor and 12.6 percent (3-24) from three-point territory in Wednesday's loss, marking the team's poorest effort from beyond the arc this season. Defensively, the Buffaloes forced 21 turnovers while committing only eight themselves and held the Bears to 26 points in the second half.
 
"We played really well on the defensive end, but someone needs to make a shot," Head Coach Bill Robinson said. "We didn't make enough shots obviously, which is the disappointing part. But we have to have a short memory and be ready to move on. We have to think about Bryan on Saturday. We knew tonight was a trap game, but it wasn't like we weren't playing hard. We played hard tonight; we just didn't make shots."
 
Mickey Woods led all scorers with 17 points, and Morgan McLeod (15) and Julian Bailey (12) joined him in double figures. McLeod and Bailey also had eight and nine rebounds, respectively, to lead Milligan under the basket.
 
Milligan led by as many as 10 in the first half but trailed at the halftime break and never had more than a one-possession lead in the second half. In fact, after Woods made two free throws to cut the deficit to 53-51 at the 6:50 mark in regulation, neither team had more than a three-point lead until overtime.
 
Woods added a basket, an 18-foot jumper at the top of the key, with 1:28 left in regulation that tied the game at 62-62, but the teams would combine for 0-for-2 from the field with two turnovers over their last two possessions.
 
In overtime, Milligan jumped out to a quick four-point lead with two made free throws from Mike Woods Jr. and a short jump hook from Bailey, but a 3-pointer by Rudy Deaza started the final run of the game where the Bears outscored Milligan 16-6 over the last four minutes. Deaza's 3-pointer was one of three triples by TMC in overtime and one of 12 made by the Bears in the contest.
 
Truett-McConnell was 25-of-51 (52%) from the field and 12-of-24 from three. Five players reached double figures for the Bears, led by J'Quayveon Williams' 16 points and nine rebounds.
 
Milligan returns to action on Saturday, Dec. 6 back here at the Steve Lacy Fieldhouse for a women and men's doubleheader starting at 2 p.m. against Bryan College (8-1, 4-0 AAC), the AAC frontrunner on the men's side. Each game will feature a "Silent Night" theme where fans remain silent until Milligan scores its 10th point.