MILLIGAN, Tenn. — The Milligan University men's basketball squad was at home on Wednesday evening inside Steve Lacy Fieldhouse, where they faced the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) opponent of the Cavaliers of Montreat College. After a tightly contested first half that saw the Buffs trailing at intermission, they were able to put together an impressive second half performance to pick up their second straight AAC victory by a final score of 86-71.
The Cavs opened the scoring with a put-back layup, but the Buffs answered on the other end with a jumper from
Elijah Bredwood to knot the score two. Both sides traded baskets over the next five minutes with Montreat holding a slight 9-8 lead at the 15-minute mark. The Cavs maintained their lead, until a
Sergej Cvetkovic three pointer, followed by a
Te'Jon McDaniel-McCormick layup, returned the lead to Milligan at 16-14 with just under 10 minutes to play in the half. In the final 10 minutes, Montreat was able to gradually outscore Milligan, resulting in them taking a 30-26 lead with just under a minute remaining. In the final minute, McDaniel Mcormick knocked down a triple to bring MU within a point, but a tip-in layup at the buzzer from MC gave them 32-29 advantage going into halftime. Overall, Milligan shot 11-of-31 (35.5%) from the field, while Montreat shot at a 12-of-28 (42.9%) clip.
Montreat scored the first six points of the second half to increase their lead to nine, at 38-29, but the rest of the half was heavily controlled by the Buffs. Milligan was able to regain the lead 39-38 at the 15:08 mark when McDaniel-McCormick scored a basket at the rim and did not relinquish the lead for the remainder of the game. The Buffs extended their lead to six with 10:11 remaining behind a fast break dunk from
Liviu Anton. From there, it was Anton and
Jake Benham that took over the game. In a three minute and 43 second span, the tandem combined for 12 points to give the Buffs a 61-50 lead with just over six minutes to play. They did not stop there as, with under five minutes to play, Benham and Anton each knocked down a triple to extend Milligan's lead to 14 at 69-55. In the final four minutes of the tilt, MU was able to win the free throw battle. Despite a late MC push, they picked up the victory at home by a final score of 86-71.
The Buffs were led in scoring by McDaniel-McCormick who was efficient all night long finishing 8-of-14 from the floor and a perfect 6-of-6 line from the charity stripe. Benham followed by scoring 16 in the second half to finish with 19 points overall on 6-of-10 shooting and 50% shooting behind the three point line. Anton poured in 16 points, while Bredwood was the final Buff to reach double-digit scoring with 15 points.
McDaniel-McCormick and
Zack Turner each dished out five assists in the victory to lead the team. Bredwood was not far behind with three dimes, while
Bo Koebbe and
Stefan Janevski each accounted for one to reach the Buffs' 15 total assist.
Bredwood grabbed eight rebounds to the lead the team in that department. The duo of McDaniel-McCormick and Koebbe each hauled in five boards, and both Turner and Janevski reeled in two.
Milligan totaled three blocks in the contest with Bredwood, Benham and Anton each sending one shot away. Thirteen total thefts were collected by the Buffs, with Bredwood leading the way with five. The trio of Koebbe, Turner and Anton each took the ball away twice, while McDaniel-McCormick and Benham had one apiece.
The Buffs (6-15, 4-9 AAC) have now won two straight AAC conference games. However, they will have a break in AAC play as their next contest will be with Georgia Gwinnett College on Saturday, Jan. 31. Georgia Gwinnet won the previous matchup on Oct. 25, but Milligan will look forward to continuing the momentum they have built. Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m. inside Steve Lacy Fieldhouse.
