LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – On Saturday night, the Milligan University men's basketball squad played their second contest on back-to-back nights in the Peach State, as they went to battle against the newly-formed Georgia Gwinnett College Grizzlies basketball program. The Buffaloes fought the squad in their first season of competition to the bitter end, but fell by four points, 76-72.
 
Milligan opened up the game with a 9-8 lead after the first 3:47 of play. The Grizzlies then posted a six-point scoring run, taking the lead at 14-9 with 15:43 remaining in the first half. Georgia Gwinnett led by as many as nine points at the 25-16 mark with 9:08 to go in the stanza, but a 10-1 MU scoring flurry tied the score at 26 apiece with 6:07 to play. A half of runs continued with a 9-1 GGC outburst to push them back out to an eight-point edge at 35-27 with 3:31 left in the half. Milligan would score six straight points to end the period down by just a pair of points at 35-33. Neither side shot the orange particularly well, as the Buffs held a slight edge at 12-of-31 (38.7%), compared to GGC's 10-of-27 (37%) output. Free throws are where the hosts made up the scoring difference, as they made 10-of-12 (83.3%) from the line. Milligan made just three of their five attempts from the charity stripe.

After Georgia Gwinnett raced out to a 41-35 lead to start the half, a prolific 11-0 scoring run by the Buffaloes put them ahead 46-41, as they scored those 11 points over 4:23 of gameplay. Then, however, GGC responded with a alley-oop dunk and a three-point shot to tie things again at 46-46. After Milligan grabbed a bucket in the paint, Georgia Gwinnett went on another run, notching nine straight points to gain a 55-48 lead with 10:29 to go. Milligan then played to an 11-4 scoring run, as the frenzies went back-and-forth with 6:36 remaining. From there, the two sides traded baskets until the Grizzlies took a 70-68 lead with 3:04 left and then extended it to four points at 72-68 with 1:33 to play. The Buffs could only get to within two points of the GGC squad for the remainder, as a three-point jumper by Elijah Bredwood with eight seconds made it 74-72, but the subsequent foul of a Grizzlies ball handler led to a pair of made free throws, sealing the game, 76-72. Milligan had a better half shooting the ball, again, but were once again outscored at the free-throw line by a 13-9 margin, making up the four-point difference in the final score.

It was another strong effort from Bredwood in regard to scoring the basketball, as he made 7-of-11 from the field and 4-of-8 from deep. He also had four free throws made in the loss to total 22 points. The one bugaboo for him was his nine turnovers of the team's 17. Grant Hensley was the second scorer for the team for the second straight night, sinking 5-of-16 overall and 3-of-11 from beyond the arc for 13 points. Te'Jon McDaniel-McCormick was also in double figures, scoring 10 points on an efficient 4-of-5 shooting night. He also knocked down his only three-point attempt.

Just 12 assists were tallied by the Buffaloes after they totaled 17 against Life. Bredwood dished out four assists, while both Hensley and McDaniel-McCormick distributed three. The remaining two assists came from the hands of Ahmari Hicks and Zack Turner.

Another otherworldly rebounding performance by McDaniel-McCormick took place. He reeled in 19 of the Buffs' 30 live-ball rebounds in the bout. He is averaging 18 rebounds per contest through two games. Bredwood hauled in three backboards, and the duo of Liviu Anton and Jake Benham hauled in a pair each. Hensley, Hicks, Turner and Zivko Damjanovic snatched the other four.

Hensley led the way with a pair of steals defensively, and McDaniel-McCormick, Hicks, Anton and Benham combined for the last four. The Buffaloes did not record a blocked shot in the defeat.

Next Saturday, Nov. 1, the Buffaloes will be back on the road in Winston-Salem, N.C., where they will face off with the Carolina University (N.C.) Bruins at 4 p.m. in search of win number one for the 2025-26 campaign.