Men’s Basketball fall short in home opener against Johnson 84-68

MILLIGAN, Tenn. (November 9, 2021) – The Milligan University men's basketball team made several big plays down the stretch but Johnson (Tenn.) buried five threes in the final six minutes of the second half to pull away from the Buffs and earn a 84-68 in Milligan's home opener at the Steve Lacy Fieldhouse on Tuesday night.

The Buffs fall to 0-3 and 0-2 in the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC). Johnson moves to 2-1, 1-0 AAC.

Johnson led by as many as nine points (26-17) with just over five minutes to go in the first half, but the Buffs kept the visitors from extending to a double-digit lead. Finn McClure knocked down a three, Sami Sanad converted a layup and Levontae Knox went coast-to-coast for a layupt to trim the deficit to 30-26 with around three minutes to play in the half.

The Roayls responded with a late three in the half to lead 37-29, but Knox muscled through the Johnson defense for a lay-up and was fouled. He converted the three-point play to make it a five-point game and Sanad put in a bucket in the final seconds of the half to limit the Johnson halftime lead to 37-34.

The Buffs remained within striking distance through the early minutes of the second half. Johnson led 50-45 with around nine minutes into the half. McClure converted a layup and after a free throw drilled a left corner three off a cross-court pass from Sanad to make it a one-point game (51-50) with 10 minutes to play.

After the teams exchanged mostly free throws for several minutes, Sanad gave the Buffs a 58-55 advantage with a spinning lay-in with 7:11 to go.

Johnson re-took a 60-58 lead with a three but Sanad tied it up with a jumped with five-and-a-half minutes to play. Johnson drilled another three with four minutes to go, but Trevor Hensley immediately responded with a make of his own.

The Royals connected on triples each of the next two trips down the floor and never looked back. Josh Thomas scored on a putback and was fouled with 2:38 to go, but the Buffs would get no closer than 69-65 as Johnson outscored Milligan 15-3 the rest of the way.

Sanad tallied 16 points, seven rebounds and two assists. Knox scored 16 points on seven-of-10 shooting and had nine rebounds. McClure had 12 points and two of the Buffs' three threes on the evening.

Milligan shot 38.8 percent from the field, three-of-22 from deep and 13-of-25 from the free throw line. Johnson converted 47.4 percent of its field goals, went nine-of-23 from three and made 21-of-27 free throws.

The Buffs return to action on Thursday evening at St. Andrews.