Lady Buffs zip  by Montreat

By Marvin Birchfield
STAR Staff
mbirchfield@starhq.com

   The Milligan Lady Buffaloes took control of the first half and exploded in the second to put away Montreat by a final of 79-54 Thursday at Steve Lacy Fieldhouse.
   Milligan fell behind during the first three and a half minutes of the contest, but once it gained the lead it never looked back.
   "We played good defense tonight, and we've been having trouble scoring, but our defense created opportunities for us this time," said Lady Buffs coach Rich Audrey.
   Ginny White scored the first basket of the night from three-point land for Milligan, as she knocked down 3 of 6 treys and finished with 11 points.
   Montreat went on a 7-0 run after Jamie Gragg busted two three-pointers to give the Cavaliers an early 7-3 advantage.
   Milligan came back to score the next eight points, including another three from White, making it 10-7 with 16:26 left in the first half.
   "Montreat shot well, especially in the first half, but we stepped up our defense, and I thought it was a good team effort from everyone," said Aubrey.
   The Buffaloes gradually kept on inching away with a pass inside from Ann Marie Gardner to Kacie Letterman to go up 30-19 in the final four minutes.
   Some success came for Milligan down low in the first half, with Lacy York and Joy Clark both pouring in six points each in the first 20 minutes of action.
   The Cavaliers made a run at the end of the half, when Julie Buchanan nailed a three to cut the lead down to six.
   Milligan enjoyed a 37-29 advantage at the half, and it didn't take them long to increase their margin after scoring the first eight points of the second half.
   The Buffaloes leading scorer on the year was held to just five points, but Kari Stout still was able to drain a three-pointer to give them a 44-29 lead with 16:50 to play.
   "They made up their minds that they were not going to let Kari score, so I told her to just go out there and pass it looking to find the opening," said Aubrey.
   The lead kept on growing when senior Nicky Jessen made a steal and pass down court for a fast-breaking Candace Shelton to go up by 20.
   "We came out and really played hard tonight, and I hope we can just keep this going," said Jessen.
   Several points came from outside for Milligan in the second half, as Shelton and Elizabeth Hunter both knocked down a couple of three-point goals each.
   Milligan continued to pull away the remainder of the contest to grab their fourth conference victory of the season and fifth win overall.
   "We had several people who shot the ball well, and we've struggled some this year, but our record doesn't show what kind of team we really have here," said Jessen.