BARBOURVILLE, Ky. — The Milligan University men's basketball team began the 2026 portion of their Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) slate on Wednesday evening at Union Commonwealth University in Barbourville, Ky. After a tight start to the battle, the Bulldogs took and downed the Buffaloes, 79-71.

The Buffaloes began the opening half by leading 8-4 after the first four minutes of the frame, but the Bulldogs would knot things up at 8-8 under a minute later. From there, the contest was played evenly, with both squads earning slightly advantages over the next six minutes of gameplay. With an 18-17 lead, Milligan went cold on offense, allowing an 11-0 run over the next three minutes of the half. Trailing 28-18, the Buffs trimmed the lead back to as few as five points at 30-25 with four minutes and change remaining. However, UCU combatted that effort by re-extending their edge to 12 points with a minute-and-a-half left in the period. A strong 8-2 finish to the period by the Buffaloes resulted in a 39-33 deficit for MU with 20 minutes to be played.

After a strong close to the first period, Milligan fell down by 10 points at 48-38 with 15:26 remaining on the clock in the second half. The Buffs would then score seven straight in the following 1:30 of game time, trailing by just three points (48-45) thanks in large part to a technical foul called on the Union bench. Unfortunately for MU, the momentum then shifted immediately in the Bulldogs' favor. A 13-4 Union Commonwealth run over the next four minutes proved to be the nail in the coffin for Milligan, as a 61-49 lead was too much to overcome. Eventually, the Buffs were able to work the deficit back to fewer than 10 points with just under two minutes left. They played the foul game from there, making up more ground to get to within seven points with 50 seconds left, but it would not be enough to change the eventual 79-71 final in UCU's favor.

A team-best 24 points were scored by Te'Jon McDaniel-McCormick, who was an efficient threat all game, notching an 8-of-13 clip from the field. Elijah Bredwood's 23 points came on a 7-of-19 clip, while he hit a trio of long-range jumpers. Jake Benham was also in double figures, having scored 11 points on a 4-of-12 evening from the field. The squad shot 23-of-52 (44.2%) for the contest but turned the ball over 14 times in comparison to Union's four.

Just nine assists were recorded by Milligan in the loss, as McDaniel-McCormick and Benham led the way with two each. Bredwood, Grant Hensley, Sergej Cvetkovic, Zack Turner and Bo Koebbe all tallied one.

Koebbe had a career-high nine rebounds in the bout, while Zivko Damjanovic (6), McDaniel-McCormick (5) and Benham (5) all hauled in five or more. Bredwood collected four backboards, with Hensley grabbing two and Stefan Janevski snatching the last rebound.

A quartet of steals and a quartet of blocks were recorded by Milligan's defense in the loss, as McDaniel-McCormick had three shot rejections in the tilt. Hensley and Benham both swiped two steals, and Bredwood tallied the other block for the Buffs. 

Milligan (4-12, 2-6 AAC) has now lost six straight AAC matchups and nine of their last 10 games overall. They will look to get back in the win column on Saturday, Jan. 10 in Dayton, Tenn. against the Bryan College Lions, with tip-off set for 4 p.m.