DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Tournament MVP
Ognjen Miljkovic posted a double-double for the second straight day with 22 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Embry-Riddle men's basketball team to the Daytona Mitsubishi/Kia Shootout title on Sunday with a 116-93 win over Virginia State. The Eagles improve to 8-1 with the victory while the Trojans fall to 8-3.
"It starts with our defense," Head Coach
Steve Ridder said in regards to his team scoring 116 points for the second straight day. "We have to get consecutive stops and we have to rebound the ball or else we don't score points like we did today. We were able to do that and we did well with our outlet passes that allowed us to play at a high tempo. And having five guys on the floor who can shoot the ball is a huge advantage for us, especially on days where it seems everyone is having a good day shooting the basketball."
Reed Ridder and
Dalton Barnes, who were both named to the All-Tournament Team, chipped in 24 points apiece. Ridder added a game-high seven assists and five boards while Barnes had nine rebounds and five assists.
Dillon Graham,
Daniel Kiesling and
Skyler Hogan each tallied 12 points as well.
Virginia State jumped out to a 5-0 lead but Ridder knocked down back-to-back threes to give ERAU the lead, 6-5. The lead changed hands five more times in the over the next two-and-a-half minutes until a Graham triple with 16:12 left in the first half gave the advantage to Embry-Riddle (14-12) for good. Just two minutes later a Kiesling trey increased the margin to 10 points (24-14) and the Eagles never looked back, extending the lead to 18 points (59-41) at the break.
The Eagles pushed the lead to as many as 27 points on two occasions in the second period and the outcome of the game was never in doubt as ERAU cruised to a 116-93 victory, scoring 116 points for the second consecutive day to raise its season scoring average to 92.3 points per game.
The Blue and Gold return to the court 10 days from now with a Dec. 30 home game against Tennessee Wesleyan, the final non-conference game of the season for Embry-Riddle. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. inside the ICI Center.
