11:32 am DeVault, Buffs fight back to beat Scotia
The blues are seemingly disappearing for Milligan.
Photo by Danny Davis - With Paul Wilson trying to keep him at bay, Milligan’s Tyler DeVault makes a strong move toward the hole.
Tyler DeVault scored six points in the final minute and the Buffaloes fought past a nine-point second-half deficit for a 75-74 victory over Barber Scotia College Wednesday night at Steve Lacy Fieldhouse.
Milligan, which was mired in an eight-game losing streak that stemmed from a 72-59 loss to the Sabers, has now won three of its last four and is seemingly putting its end-of-game struggles in the past with a second-straight down-to-the-wire victory.
“We’ve been in a lot of close games this year,” said Milligan coach Bill Robinson. “When you do that, you start having that experience and hopefully good things will happen. Tyler had the confidence to knock down two shots.
“A lot of times we’ll practice and say, ‘This next possession is win or lose.’ Make a stop and you get a win, hit one and you get a win. That’s what it comes down to in a lot of these games. We just needed one stop to get a win and we got it.”
Barber Scotia led by as much as nine with 7:18 remaining in the game, but Milligan fought within two. In the blink of an eye, however, the visiting lead returned to eight with less than five minutes on the clock.
Mickey Woods and Torian Sitton fought Milligan within four as the seconds wound away. A back-court violation on Barber Scotia led to a foul on DeVault, who made two to make it a one-point game with :56.6 remaining.
Milligan put the Sabers’ Paul Wilson on the line on the other end of the court and the post made one of two, making it a one-possession game. DeVault struck from inside with an easy deuce to close the gap at one.
Barber Scotia’s Tyrell Alston had an opportunity to extend the visiting advantage from the charity stripe on the Sabers’ following possession, but a pair of misses gave the Buffs room to roll.
DeVault looked inside for a shot, but was fouled with 21.5 seconds on the clock. The former Sullivan Central standout made both to lift Milligan to a lead with one possession remaining.
“Those free throws were big,” said DeVault, who finished with a double-double 16 points and 10 rebounds. “I’d been struggling with that, but I’ve been working every day after practice and before practice trying to get better at that and it finally came through.”
Barber Scotia pushed the ball around the brim as the final moments ticked away, but Alston missed a jumper and Wilson failed to deliver a put-back as time expired.
Milligan’s team effort on defense limited the Sabers to just one point over the final 4:47 and made the biggest difference in the comeback.
“We tried to focus on making sure we stayed hard on defense,” said DeVault. “That’s what it came to down the stretch. We played great team defense and everybody was helping.”
Including DeVault, four players scored in the double figures for Milligan, led by a strong game from Kyle Grisby.
Grisby, who had 18 points and nine assists, kept Milligan’s offensive attack going from both the point and two positions.
“I’m just trying to make my teammates better,” said Grisby, who was instrumental distributing the ball during the second half run on a night where he was 6-of-7 from the field behind the three-point arch. “It was hard to pull it out. We played good defense and it was a whole team effort.”
Woods added 15 for the Buffs, while Sitton totaled 11 to wound out the scoring.
“We had good balance tonight,” said Robinson. “Kyle has done a really good job. We actually put him at the two guard a good bit because he’s been shooting the ball so well. He hit six threes tonight, so obviously he needs to keep shooting the ball out there.”
Barber Scotia was paced by 18 from Wilson, with Carlos Benton Jr. (15 points), Alston (11 points) and Edward Walker (10 points) all adding to the visiting cause.
The Buffs return to conference action against Point University in Georgia Saturday.
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