Milligan Men’s Basketball Heads to AAC Title Game with Dominant Semis Triumph over Montreat

KINGSPORT, Tenn. — The Milligan University men's basketball team battled with the Montreat College Cavaliers on Friday night inside the MeadowView Marriott in Kingsport, as the Buffs emerged victorious with a dominant 20-point win to send them to their first AAC Tournament Championship game since the 2014-15 season.

A 13-0 run to start the ballgame was a good omen for what was to come for the Buffaloes, while Montreat was able to cut into that advantage slightly before the break, where the Buffs would lead 37-29. Milligan sunk 14 of their 29 shot attempts in the first half to finish just one make shy of 50%. The Cavaliers' 8-of-27 clip in the period put them in chase mode for the rest of the contest.

Milligan extended their lead to 11 points with a three-point shot to start the second half and never looked back. From that point on, the lead only grew, as it ballooned to as many as 26 points at 73-47 with 5:32 left to play. The Buffs would cruise to an 80-60 win by posting a 14-of-24 shooting clip while holding Montreat to only 10-of-28 from the field.

McCaskill Rivers scored a team-best 22 points on a 6-of-13 night from the floor. Elijah Bredwood put up 14 off the bench, knocking down 6-of-8 with two threes, while Sam Gold provided 13 points on 5-of-12 shooting. Handje Tamba also had 11 points to round out the list of double-digit scorers.

Gold's four assists led the squad, while three others had three dimes. Rivers, Bredwood and Finn McClure dished out those nine assists. Jayme Peay was responsible for the two remaining setups.

Eight rebounds were nabbed by Rivers to pace the squad, while McClure and Gold provided six apiece. Peay notched five, Tamba grabbed four, Luke Lentz obtained three and Flynn Carlson had two. Bredwood, Lincoln Thomae and Piripi Korent had the other three.

McClure had a four-steal night for the Buffaloes, while no other Milligan player had multiple steals. Peay had a pair of rejections in the win, while Gold and Tamba had one steal and one block apiece. Rivers and Thomae each added one steal.

This will be the first appearance in the AAC Tournament Championship for the Buffs men since the 2014-15 season when they fell to the institution then known as Union College. They will face off with the No. 4-seeded Johnson University Royals, who toppled the No. 1-seeded UPIKE Bears on Friday, at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Mar. 1 at the MeadowView Marriott. They are looking for their first Tournament Championship win since 1998-99.