WEST POINT, Ga. (Jan. 9, 2016) â€" Seniors Milos Petrovic and Kurt Brooks got off to a hot start, combining for 14 of the Buffaloes' first 16 points of the game, but it was a hot second half for Point University that doomed the Milligan College men's basketball team in an 84-72 loss Saturday evening at West Point Park Gymnasium.
 
The Buffs record fell to 10-5 overall, the same start Milligan had last season before ultimately finishing runner-up in both the AAC regular season and tournament races, and also dropped them to 6-3 in the Appalachian Athletic Conference. Point earned its second win in seven games against the Buffs and rose to 5-15 overall and 3-6 in the league.
 
Brooks led Milligan in the scoring column with 17 points, and Petrovic tied a career high in both points and rebounds with 14 and seven. Julian Bailey, another senior, added 10 boards and 14 points, 12 of which came in the second half with five coming in the final few minutes as Milligan attempted to come back. Songster, the final senior, chipped in with seven rebounds while Brooks added six boards and Petrovic had two blocks.
 
Despite reaching 70 points for the 10th time in 15 games this season, the Buffs were done in by allowing Point to score 51 in the second half while shooting 55.5 percent from the field and 71.4 percent from behind the arc.
 
With Milligan only trailing by one at the half (33-32), Point scored the first seven points of the second period and went up by double digits for the first time at 44-33. Freshman Jacob Cawood proceeded to take a charge, connect on two free throws and score while spinning past his defender to give Milligan some life and get the Buffs back within seven at 44-37, but it would not be enough in the end.
 
After the Skyhawks extended the margin back up to 12 at 53-41, Point seemed to have an answer for nearly every attempt Milligan made to get back within single digits, something it achieved at the 9:40 mark when Petrovic scored on the feed from Bailey, and again with 6:47 left when Brooks hit a pair from the charity stripe.
 
Point's largest lead came with a 14-point margin at 69-55 before Milligan spent the next four plus minutes on a 15-8 run to make it a seven-point game with only 40 seconds on the clock.
 
Petrovic's strong night started by scoring eight of the Buffs' first 12 points, including six in a row at one point for Milligan, who held leads of 8-3 and 12-7 early in the first half. Point responded with a 14-5 run to take a 21-17 advantage.
 
Next, with Milligan trailing 24-21 after a score by Will Buckner, David Casaday began to make his imprint on the game, scoring with a layup and hitting the Buffs' first 3-pointer of the contest to tie the game at 26-26.
 
After an Alex Biggerstaff 3-pointer for Milligan and a free throw by Buckner, the first half ended on another layup from Petrovic to give him 11 points and six rebounds at the intermission. Five Buffs had four boards or more at the break as Songster, like Petrovic, also had six, Buckner had five, and Gabriel Logan and Brooks both had four.
 
Point put five players in double figures as Traevon Gresham had a game-high 20 points, Jacob Pettway had 19, Jonathan Manning had 13, Darrin Clark had 12 and Seth Houston had 11.
 
Milligan's next game is an AAC matchup with the team that handed the Buffs their first conferece loss of the season four games into league action, Reinhardt University, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, at 7:30 p.m. at the Steve Lacy Fieldhouse.