MILLIGAN COLLEGE, TN (December 17, 2005) --- With an opening basket from forward Adrian Harrison (Greensboro, N.C.) the Milligan College Buffaloes basketball team never trailed Cincinnati Christian University. The Buffs defeated the Golden Eagles of CCU by the score of 74-55 Saturday afternoon at the Steve Lacy Fieldhouse in a non-conference match-up.

With the win, Milligan improves to 6-6 while CCU drops to 7-7.

The Buffs would open the contest with a 10-0 run before Cincinnati Christian’s Justin Bilyeu hit a three point basket to put CCU on the board four minutes into the game.

Milligan held CCU and extended the lead to 14-3 after a Tony Brogan (Tazewell, Va.) basket with 14 minutes left in the first half. With a lead in double-digits, Milligan kept adding to the lead which kept the Eagles off balanced the reminder of the opening half.

Zach Dezarn (Franklin, Ohio) scored five straight points for the Buffs with two free throws and a three point basket with seven minutes left in the opening half which put Milligan in front 31-10.

In the first half, the Buffs would eventually lead by as many as 24 points on two different occasions. The first time was after a basket from Tino Washington (Lexington, Ky.) with 5:30 left in the half. After CCU cut the lead down to 19 points Milligan put together a run to push the lead back to 24 after a Josh Terry (Jonesville, Va.) basket with 2:30 remaining. Cincinnati Christian closed the gap once again to go into the halftime break with Milligan in front 46-27.

The low scoring second half saw the Eagles try to make a run at the Buffaloes but Cincinnati Christian could only come within 16 points of the lead. CCU made the score 51-35 when Ryan Best converted an old fashion three point play with a made basket and the free throw after Harrison was called for a foul during the shot.

Milligan’s Yony Kifle (Alexandria, Va.) put the Buffs in front 68-39, the 29 point lead was the largest lead of the game, with less than eight minutes remaining.

Adam Hughes (Bluff City, Tenn.) scored 11 second half points for Milligan and he led all scorers with 13 points, he was 6-for-7 from the field. Tino Washington scored 11 points; he was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field including 3-for-3 from behind the three point line for the Buffs. Zach Dezarn scored 12 points in the win, with all his points coming in the first half. Tony Brogan added ten points and Harrison also scored ten points and grabbed a game high seven rebounds for the Buffs.

Cincinnati Christian was led by Donnie Fishburn, with his 12 points. Dartanion Thomas scored eight points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Eagles.

The Buffs were able to shoot 54.5 percent from the field compared to CCU’s 42.9 percent in the game. Included is Milligan’s 8-for-16 (50 percent) shooting performance from behind the three point line.

Milligan will take off for Christmas and return to action on Monday, January 2 when the Buffaloes will host Berea (Ky.) College for a 7:30 p.m. tip off from the Steve Lacy Fieldhouse. Berea defeated Milligan 76-68 in the Buffs’ season opener on November 5. In the game, Jeff Barnes started his Milligan career with a game high 25 points.