Owen Honroth scored 18 points to lead all Berry scorers as the Vikings dropped an exhibition men's basketball contest to D-II foe West Alabama, 78-65, Tuesday night in Livingston, Ala.

The Vikings remain 8-0 on the season as the statistics will not count towards the final tallies for Berry; however, the Vikings led at the first media timeout and trimmed UWA's 22-point second half lead down to nine on two occasions.

Berry scored its first seven points of the game on the fastbreak to open up a 7-2 advantage, but the Vikings would sputter through a cold-shooting first half in their first game since Dec. 3. Berry would go 9-of-35 from the field in the opening 20 minutes, while UWA (9-2) would go 16-of-33 en route to a 40-21 lead.

The shooting numbers would nearly reverse in the second half, as UWA went 9-of-26 while Berry went 15-of-33. Berry would out-score the home side 44-38 in the final 20 minutes, but the Tigers would go 20-of-22 from the charity stripe in the second half to keep BC at arm's length.

Chase Ellis scored 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds while Riley Costas added 11 points and five boards. Braxton Benham had a game-best five assists as the Vikings had 19 assists as a unit to UWA's 12.

The Vikings will be back in action Monday afternoon as they face Roanoke in the Nashville Shoot Out on the campus of Welch College.