WEST POINT, Ga. (Jan. 9, 2016) â€" Allison Jones finished with the second highest scoring output of her senior season and Morgan Gose had a career-high 16 points, but it was not enough as the No. 25 Milligan College women's basketball team suffered its first Appalachian Athletic Conference defeat of 2015-16, falling to Point University, 62-54, Saturday afternoon at the West Point Park Gymnasium.
 
With only its second loss to the Skyhawks in the last eight meetings, Milligan's record lowered to 14-4 overall and 8-1 in the AAC. Point, who was receiving votes before the latest top-25 coaches' poll earlier this week and defeated No. 17 Bryan three days before the Buffs did, improved to 14-3 and 7-2.
 
Jones' 19 points came on 50 percent shooting from the field and 3-5 shooting from 3-point range while Gose was 60 percent from the field and 4-6 from three. Sarah Robinson added eight points and seven rebounds, and Jones and Courtney Wilson both finished with six boards.
 
The fourth quarter began with a flurry of Buffs' baskets as Milligan started the frame with seven straight points and capped a 9-0 run with a layup by Jones with 7:37 left to play, making the score 47-39 in favor of the Buffs. In fact, Milligan outscored its output in the entire third quarter in just three minutes and 30 seconds of time in the fourth.
 
However, after a three from Gose with 6:33 to go in the game made it 50-43, Point and Dereese Owens, the conference's leading scorer, took over. The Skyhawks proceeded to go on a 19-4 run to finish the game over the last six minutes and 30 seconds of action. Owens highlighted the run with 12 points and two big 3-pointers to give Point the separation it needed to pull off the victory.
 
The story of the first half for Milligan was good shooting by Jones and Gose keeping the Buffs close. Jones began the game with back-to-back threes and had a string of three straight layups starting at the 3:20 mark in the second quarter to tie the game at 28-28.
 
Gose, meanwhile, ended the first quarter with a jumper from the corner and started the second with a 3-pointer of her own. Gose then gave Milligan its third lead of game with a three with 30 seconds to play in the first half.
 
The Buffs were hampered by a slow start in the first quarter as Milligan fired nine 3-pointers in the opening frame, but only connected on three of them and finished 5-13 from the field in the quarter compared to 7-15 from the Skyhawks. Additionally, the Buffs reliance on the 3-point shot led them to being outscored 10-2 in the paint in the opening quarter.
 
Milligan, however, answered back in the second quarter by hitting eight of its 12 shots and raising its field goal percentage up to 52 percent (13-25) to that point.

The third quarter was very low scoring as the two teams combined for only 16 points in the frame, but Milligan was able to use a pair of free throws from Lindsee Price with 25 seconds to go to take a 40-39 lead, Milligan's fifth and final lead of the game.
 
Owens, who was averaging an AAC-best 21.6 points per game entering Saturday's game, finished with a game-high 23 points on four threes to lead Point. Alexa Manning, the fifth highest scorer in the AAC, had 17 points while Vanessa Calhoun added 13.

Next up, Milligan returns to the Steve Lacy Fieldhouse, where it is currently undefeated at 6-0, for a night game at 5:30 p.m. against Reinhardt University on Wednesday, Jan. 13, with the men's game to follow. Milligan defeated the Lady Eagles by nine just over a month ago in Waleska, Georgia.