XENIA, Ohio – On Tuesday afternoon, the Milligan University men's basketball team competed in their first game of the AIA Christmas Classic at the John Wooden Fieldhouse on the Athletes in Action campus in Xenia, Ohio. The opener for the Buffs was against the Taylor University (Ind.) Trojans. After a concerning start to the contest, Milligan rallied back to being down by just six points in the second half, but ultimately fell 102-91 to the Trojans despite a 45-point outburst by Elijah Bredwood.

The first half saw the Buffaloes begin with a massive deficit, as the Trojans came out hot with a 22-5 run over the first 4:45 of gameplay. After trailing by as many as 21 points at 41-20 at the 8:00 mark remaining in the opening period, the Buffaloes whittled away at the deficit over the remainder of the half. They scored 14 of the next 15 points in the tilt to make it 42-34, reaching their smallest disadvantage since it was 10-3 with 18:03 left. Taylor was able to stretch it back out a bit to a 51-40 score entering the break. Taylor came out shooting extremely well and concluded the half with a 56.7% clip from the field. The Buffs, on the other hand, made just 15-of-36 from the field, but improved majorly in the latter stages. Turnovers plagued TU in the first half, as they coughed up the orange on 10 occasions, allowing MU to stay in the contest.

Over the opening two-and-a-half minutes, the Buffaloes lit up the scoreboard, holding an 11-6 lead over that span to cut the Taylor edge to just six points at 57-51. From there, however, the Trojans were able to extend that lead again to as many as 14 points late in the contest, 94-80. The big story for Milligan in the second half was the scoring prowess of Bredwood, who nailed 13-of-20 from the field in the second half alone to notch 35 points. He totaled all but 16 of the team's second-half tallies. Taylor had an efficient half scoring the ball, as well, as the two sides tied 51-51 over the course of 20 minutes to conclude the battle at 102-91 in the Trojans' favor.

Bredwood scored a career-best 45 points in the loss, which is tied for the fifth-highest point total in Milligan history. It is the highest total scored since Mickey Woods' 45-point output in a game against Berea (Ky.) in 2013. He was extremely efficient, shooting 17-of-28 in the game and an unreal 9-of-14 from deep. The nine threes is tied for third all-time in Milligan lore, as well. Jake Benham (12), Liviu Anton (11) and Te'Jon McDaniel-McCormick (10) also scored in double figures.

Only four assists were added by the Buffaloes, as Zivko Damjanovic led the way with two and both Bredwood and Grant Hensley added one.

Bredwood also paced the team's rebounding efforts, with seven. He was followed by Anton and McDaniel-McCormick with six apiece. Benham added five, and a trio of players (Bo Koebbe, Zack Turner, Luka Horvatic) tacked on two. Damjanovic tallied the final backboard.

McDaniel-McCormick grabbed three steals to lead the team, with Bredwood, Benham, Hensley, Turner and Sergej Cvetkovic handling the other five. Horvatic sent back a pair of shots in just four minutes, while Anton added one of his own.

The Buffs (3-9, 2-5 AAC) will now look ahead to the consolation bracket contest on Wednesday afternoon at 12:30 p.m. against the St. Francis (Ill.) Fighting Saints, with designs on coming out of the AIA Christmas Classic with a split.