DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Embry-Riddle men's basketball team scored the first eight points of the game on Saturday night and never looked back, running away to a 116-88 victory over Thomas. With the win, the Blue and Gold improve to 7-1 on the season, while the Night Hawks drop to 5-7.
 
Ognjen Miljkovic notched his second double-double with a game-high 25 points and 10 rebounds while Dalton Barnes chipped in 20 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Reed Ridder (19 points), Daniel Kiesling (16), and Dillon Graham (12) also reached double-figures for the Eagles.
 
Ridder made a layup to open the scoring and Kiesling knocked down a pair of free throws to cap the game-opening 8-0 run over the first 3:02 of the contest. A Graham three pushed the lead to double-digits for the first time with ERAU pulling out to a 16-6 lead less than six minutes into the game. The advantage grew to 15 on a Kiesling triple with 11:44 left in the half and a Barnes three just before the buzzer gave the Blue and Gold a comfortable 53-32 halftime lead.
 
The Night Hawks improved markedly on offense in the second period, shooting 50 percent in the half after shooting 37 percent in the first half and scoring 56 points in the final 20 minutes. Unfortunately for the visitors, Embry-Riddle found a way to improve upon a 53-point first half by scoring 63 second-half points, including 24 from the charity stripe. With 15:03 the Eagles led by 35 points (74-39) and ERAU never felt threatened the rest of the way. Miljkovic scored 17 of his 25 points in the second period as the Eagles cruised to the 116-88 win.
 
With the win, the Eagles advance to face Virginia State in the championship game of the Daytona Mitsubishi/Kia Shootout tomorrow at 4 p.m. VSU defeated Texas A&M-Kingsville in the first game of the tournament on Saturday, 80-55.