Milligan men’s basketball defeated Montreat College 100-81 in the first round of the AAC tournament at the Steve Lacy Fieldhouse Wednesday night. The Buffaloes will move on to play Union College in the semifinals.
Milligan head coach Bill Robinson was pleased that his team was able to defeat their regular-season rivals.
“It’s always tough, when you beat a team twice in the regular season, to make sure you get the third win,” said Robinson. “We just didn’t want them to find a way to win this game.”
Freshman Kyle Grisby, who has been a big contributor for the Buffs this season, rolled his ankle and left the game in the second half. He returned a few minutes later with 8:56 left to play, but he was limping and in obvious pain.
“When Grisby went back in the second half he told me and the team he was about at 70 percent,” said Robinson. “We needed guys to really step up to get the win tonight.”
One player who stepped up was sophomore Justin Sylvester, who scored 15 points and pulled in four rebounds.
“I just wanted to give energy to the team tonight,” said Sylvester. “When Kyle went out I knew that I needed to play big off the bench. Tonight was a very hard fought game and we are very pleased to get a win.”
Milligan took a quick 11-0 lead at the start of the game and ended the first half up by 15 points.
“We started the game really fast and were able to knock down a lot of big shots early,” said junior Hudson Fricke. Fricke led Milligan in scoring with 31 points.
Union cut the lead to eight points in the second half, but that was as close as they came.
Junior Bryant Edwards led the Buffs in stopping Montreat’s second-half run. With Grisby out, Edwards played more minutes than he usually does and had to play a different role.
“Bryant played very big tonight,” said Fricke. “He stepped up for us and really played well with Grisby out.”
Robinson was happy with his team’s resolve in rejecting Montreat’s comeback attempt in the second half.
“We really have eight starters on this team,” Robinson said. “Tonight we were able to beat a very physical and tough team. At this tournament players are going to need to be ready to step up and play whatever position we need them to.”
Sophomore Tyler DeVault played many crucial minutes, as junior Cordero Seymour was forced on the bench because of early foul trouble. DeVault went one rebound short of a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds, including six offensive rebounds. Junior Marshall Hardy scored 10 points and got 10 rebounds.
Milligan will play their next game
at home against Union at 4 p.m. on Feb. 26.
For more information on Milligan College athletics, go to www.milliganbuffs.com, or go to the Athletics page on the Milligan homepage.
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