Milligan Men's Basketball Beats Carolina at Home in Non-Conference Tilt

MILLIGAN, Tenn. - The Milligan University men's basketball team played their first non-conference contest of the 2025 calendar year on Saturday night inside Steve lacy Fieldhouse. They faced off with Carolina University for the second time this year, after beating them on the road back in early November. The Buffs controlled this contest from the start, grabbing a 79-55 victory.

Milligan was on fire shooting the orange in the opening half, knocking down 18-of-30 (60%) from the field. They also sunk 5-of-9 (55.6%) from long range. Carolina struggled mightily, making just 38.7% of their shots to start the contest. The Buffaloes led by 12, 45-33 at the intermission.

Neither side shot the ball particularly well in the second half, but Milligan did a considerably better job than the visiting Bruins. The Buffaloes' 10-of-26 (38.5%) mark was not inspiring, but certainly beat the Carolina line of 8-of-32 (25%). Milligan outscored the Bruins 34-22 in the second half, and ended the game with a 24-point win, 79-55.

On just nine field goal attempts, McCaskill Rivers led the way with 20 points on six made shots. He also went a perfect 8-of-8 from the free-throw line. Jayme Peay went 4-of-8 from the floor with 12 points in the win, while Sam Gold scored 11 on 3-of-6 shooting and 3-of-4 from deep. Lastly, Luke Lentz poured in 10 off the bench on a 4-of-10 night shooting the rock.

Rivers was also the team's leader in assists, with five. Lentz andElijah Bredwood each had two, while the other four came from Peay, Finn McClure, Bennett Bowers and Flynn Carlson.

Rivers nearly had a double-double, as he pulled in nine backboards. Peay nabbed eight, while Gold provided six, and the trio of McClure, Carlson and Handje Tamba snatched four apiece. Bredwood and Piripi Korent nabbed two apiece, as well. Lentz, Lincoln Thomae and Cadon Buckles grabbed the other three rebounds for the Buffaloes.

Rejecting one shot and grabbing two steals was Tamba, as Rivers added a pair of his own steals. Peay had one of each, while Bredwood had a single theft and Carlson had one rejection.

Milligan now looks forward to Wednesday, Feb. 12, when they host the Bluefield University Rams inside Steve Lacy Fieldhouse at 7:30 p.m. The squad sits on the periphery of the top spot in the AAC, just one game behind the University of Pikeville and a half game behind Columbia International, as they have just three more regular-season contests to make up that thin deficit.