MILLIGAN, Tenn. — Milligan University's women's basketball team, fresh off clinching the No. 1 seed in the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Tournament, hosted Tennessee Wesleyan's Bulldogs inside Steve Lacy Fieldhouse. With a win, the Buffs would become the outright AAC champs. That is exactly what occurred, as the Buffaloes ran away with a 78-41 win to win their seventh regular-season AAC championship.

The Buffaloes came out firing on all cylinders in the first period, scoring 15 points over the first 5:27 of the battle. In that same window, TWU was held to only two points, as the two sides were on opposite ends of the spectrum early on. Milligan slowed down slightly in the offensive end over the last few minutes, scoring only eight more points before the end of the period. The Bulldogs ended up with only seven points to conclude the quarter on an abysmal 2-of-15 shooting clip. The Buffs managed a top-notch 11-of-16 mark to take a 23-7 lead into the second.

Before the first media timeout in the second quarter, the Buffs ballooned their lead to 27 points at 41-14 with 3:06 left to go in the half. The rest of the half did not yield a ton of offense for either side, as a 6-3 stretch in MU's favor closed out the period with a 47-17 lead entering the second half. It was another poor showing from the Bulldogs in the period, as they made only four field goals on 11 tries for 10 points. Milligan's 10-of-18 mark from the field included a pair of triples and helped them outscore their first-quarter total, putting up 24 second-quarter points.

Coming out of the break, the Buffaloes endured a slow start, shooting just 4-of-12 at the 4:27 mark. Luckily, no ground was made up by the Bulldogs, who scored the same number of points as the Buffs (8) during that stretch. The rest of the quarter was much the same, as the two sides battled to a 14-14 tie over the course of the period. Milligan struggled to the tune of a 5-of-18 shooting line in the opening period of the second half. Tennessee Wesleyan shot 7-of-13, keeping their deficit at 30 points, 61-31.

To close out the game, TWU struggled again, hitting only 1-of-7 from the field before the media timeout at 4:53 remaining. Milligan was 4-of-11 in that stead. After that, the Lady Buffs used the opportunity to empty their bench and cruised to a 78-41 win to clinch the AAC Regular Season Championship.

Semaj Clark led the way, scoring 17 points in 21 minutes. She went 7-of-14 from the field in the victory. McKenna Myers and Lina Lyon put up 12 points apiece, combining to shoot 12-of-15 in the contest. Overall, 14 of the 15 players who touched the floor for the Buffaloes scored at least two points.

A total of 21 assists were racked up by Milligan, including a team-best mark of three by four players. Lyon, Kenzie Campbell, Caroline Krueger and Callie Reeder were responsible for those 12. Clark and Cora Browning dished out two each, and Myers, Nina Lovelace, Kabria Revels, Lexi Ervin and Naomi Atchley rounded out the contributions with one each.

Leading the team in backboards was Clark, who reeled in six. Campbell and Atchley grabbed five apiece, while Lovelace and Reeder had four. Lyon, Krueger, Browning and Makenzie Bremer all tallied three, and Romy Bos and Dachelle Lucas snatched two apiece. Revels, Ervin and Bailey McCoy also had rebounds.

Milligan had 14 steals and four blocks in the victory, including Bos' three-block, one-steal afternoon. Clark totaled three steals, as well, while both Myers and Browning stole the ball twice. Bremer, Lyon, McCoy, Reeder, Ervin and Lucas snatched the ball once each. Atchley supplied the remaining blocked shot.

With the triumph, the Buffs (20-7, 19-1 AAC) take home their seventh regular season title since the AAC was established in the 2000-01 season. They play next on Thursday, Feb. 26 at 12 p.m. in their first AAC Tournament contest against the winner of No. 8-seeded Columbia (S.C.) and No. 9-seeded Montreat (N.C.) at the MeadowView Marriott Conference Center and Resort in Kingsport, Tenn.