MILLIGAN, Tenn. — On Saturday night, the Milligan University men's basketball team took on Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) foe Johnson University Royals. The Valentine's Day matchup also marked Senior Night, as the Buffs honored their senior team members. After taking a 29-26 lead into halftime, Milligan conceded 48 second half points and eventually fell by a final of 74-56.

Milligan opened the scoring when senior Elijah Bredwood nailed a pull-up jumper to put them ahead 2-0, but Johnson responded at the other end with a layup to knot the score at two. The Buffs quickly jumped out 10-4 lead after Te'Jon McDaniel-McCormick made a shot from beyond the arc and Bredwood added a layup. At the 9:40 mark, MU grew their lead to eight at 18-10 after Bredwood grabbed a rebound and went coast to coast for a layup. However, the Royals went on 10-3 scoring run over the next 5:02 to slim the Buff lead down to a single point. To end the half, a McDaniel-McCormick layup and Bredwood three-pointer extended the Milligan lead to five, but a layup by Johnson closed the first half scoring and cut the Royals deficit to three at 29-26 going into the intermission. Milligan shot 11-35 (31.4%) from the floor and 4-of-16 (25%) from three, while Johnson went 10 for 29 from the floor and 0 for 5 from three in the half.

The Buffaloes' second half started with a Liviu Anton shot from a distance to put them ahead 32-26. From there, the Royals began to take over the game. They tied the game at 36 at the 16:00 mark and grew their lead to 14 at 54-40 at the 9:38 mark. The Buffs struggled to score the ball in the second half against a physical Royals defense, as in 10 minutes of action they scored only 10 points. The suffocating Johnson defense led to them controlling the game and eventually taking a 20-point lead at 68-48 with just over two minutes remaining. The Buffs continued to battle and scored nine points in the final two minutes, but it was not enough as the Royals captured the victory by a final score of 74-56.

Liviu Anton led all Milligan scorers with 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Elijah Bredwood added 15 points and Te'jon McDaniel-McCormick dropped in 13 points to round out the double-digit scorers.

MU totaled 10 assists in the loss, led by the trio of McDaniel-McCormick, Turner and Jake Benham who all had two dimes. Four different Buffs distributed the ball once in Bredwood, Zivko Damjanovic, Bo Koebbe and Eli Lewkowicz.

Benham and McDaniel-McCormick each hauled in eight boards to lead the team. Bredwood reeled in seven, all in the first half, to follow. Anton cleaned the glass five times, while Turner, Damjanovic, Stefan Janevski and Grant Hensley all did so twice. Koebbe recorded one rebound to reach Milligan's grand total of 40.

The Buffs had five steals in the loss, with Turner leading the way with two thefts. McDaniel-McCormick, Bredwood and Koebbe each recorded one steal, respectively.

The Buffaloes (7-17, 5-10 AAC), are now one game behind Reinhardt for 10th place in the AAC standings and a spot in the conference tournament. On Monday, Feb. 16, Milligan will match up with Reinhardt in a game that was rescheduled from Feb. 4 at home for a chance to make up the one game difference. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. inside Steve Lacy Fieldhouse.