KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The Milligan University men's basketball program headed west to Knoxville, Tenn. on Wednesday evening, where they matched up with the Royals of Johnson University. The Buffaloes battled for the entirety of the tilt, but despite a career night from Jake Benham, fell to JU by a final of 85-78.

Neither side led by more than seven points in the opening half, as the Buffaloes held their largest lead of the game at 17-13 with 11:10 remaining in the half. From there, Johnson put together a 13-3 run to take a 26-20 lead. They would maintain the edge for the rest of the half and led Milligan 38-33 at the intermission. The Buffs shot just 11-of-31 (35.5%) in the opening half, and made just four threes on 13 tries. 

In the second half, Johnson extended their lead to 11 points with 9:03 to play. That development could have signaled an end to the night for the Buffaloes, but instead they rattled off nine straight points to get them back to within two points at 64-62 with 6:52 left. From there, though, JU refused to allow Milligan to tie the contest or take the lead. At the battle's conclusion, Milligan dropped a 85-78 decision.

It was a breakout evening for Benham, who scored a team-best 25 points on an 8-of-16 shooting clip. The more outrageous line was his 7-of-11 three-point shooting line, with all seven makes coming in the second half. Elijah Bredwood scored 20 points on an 8-of-18 clip from the field, and Te'Jon McDaniel-McCormick was also in double figures with 16 points, including a 9-of-12 night from the free-throw line.

Milligan had 12 assists in the loss, as McDaniel-McCormick took care of half of those. Bredwood supplied four and both Grant Hensley and Zack Turner added one.

Rebounding proved to be important in the contest, as the Buffaloes were outpaced 40-33 at the conclusion of the bout. McDaniel-McCormick notched eight rebounds for the second game straight, and Benham followed him with six of his own. Bredwood and Zivko Damjanovic tallied four apiece, while Hensley and Ahmari Hicks tabbed three. The final two were grabbed by Stefan Janevski and Sergej Cvetkovic.

The defense for Milligan consisted of just two steals in the tilt. McDaniel-McCormick and Damjanovic were responsible for the thefts.

Milligan's (3-5, 2-2 AAC) next test comes on Saturday, Dec. 6 inside Steve Lacy Fieldhouse on Smith-Harris Court against the Rams of Columbia International University (S.C.) at 3 p.m.