ROME, Ga. - Tim Miles scored a game high 23 points to lead Berry to a 71-62 victory over Oglethorpe Wednesday evening at the Cage Center.
Berry never trailed in the game, opening a 17-point lead less than eight minutes into the contest when Miles nailed a 3-pointer to make the score 23-6 with 12:28 remaining in the first half. Oglethorpe cut its deficit to seven points on three occasions in the opening frame before the Vikings took a 36-26 advantage into halftime.
Miles scored 13 points on 5-for-6 shooting, including 3-for-3 from 3-point range, in the first half. He wasn't the only Berry player with a hot hand in the first 20 minutes, as the Vikings shot 58 percent (15-for-26) from the field and 75 percent (6-for-8) from long range.
Meanwhile, the Vikings' defense held strong in the opening half, limiting Oglethorpe to 29 percent (10-for-34) shooting from the field, including a 25 percent (3-for-12) three-point mark.
Berry's long-range prowess in the first half kept the Vikings off the charity stripe without a free throw attempt in the period.
"I was very pleased with how we came out in the first eight minutes of the game," Berry head coach Jeff Haarlow said. "Oglethorpe is a good basketball team, and we were able to hit them hard from the start. It's hard to sustain the level of concentration that we had in the first eight minutes for an entire game, but I thought we did a good job of battling to maintain our focus."
The Stormy Petrels (3-3) would again pull to within seven points with just over nine minutes to play in the second half, but Berry (4-1) peeled off a 17-7 run over the next six minutes to jump out to an insurmountable 66-49 lead.
The final nine-point spread, which came on a pair of free throws with eight seconds left, would be the closest Oglethorpe would get.
"I think that was the best 40 minutes of basketball we've played all year," Haarlow said.
Miles finished 7-for-11 from the field, including 4-for-7 from 3-point range. He also hauled down eight rebounds and dished out four assists. He was joined in double figures by teammate David Holloman, who scored 14 points and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.
Joe Kennedy led three Oglethorpe players in double figures with 15 points. Todd Ward recorded a double-double with 14 points and 10 boards, and Alec Pitts added 11 points for the Stormy Petrels.
Berry will take 10 days off to complete the final week of classes and final exams for the fall semester before returning to action against the same Oglethorpe team on Dec. 11 in Atlanta.
- BerryVikings.com -
