MOUNT BERRY, Ga. - Berry scored on the first possession of the game and never looked back, leading for almost the duration of a 78-62 victory over Oglethorpe Saturday night at The Cage Center in the Southern Athletic Association opener for both teams.

"I think we play really hard and we play together," said Berry head coach Mick Hedgepeth, who saw his team improve to 8-0 on the young season. "We've got areas to clean up, but overall, we play as a team and we play really hard and that's a lot of fun."

Braxton Benham started the game connecting on a jumper for the first of his game-high 19 points, and the Vikings were on their way. Up 18-13, BC would hit on three 3-pointers as part of an 11-0 run to stretch the lead up to 18, 31-13, with 6:30 to go in the opening half. In all, eight Vikings scored in the opening 20 minutes as Berry led 40-25 at the halftime break.

The Berry lead would never be less than 13 in the second half as Oglethorpe (3-3, 0-1) would see the deficit swell as high as 26 after a Ryan Segall lay-up with 8:43 left made it 65-39. The Stormy Petrels would start to chip away with Berry's reserves in the game as the Vikings settled for a comfortable 16-point win.

Berry went 31-of-66 from the field in the game, hitting on 11 3-pointers. Ellis joined Benham in double-figures in scoring with 11 points. Thirteen Vikings saw action in the game, with 11 getting in the scorebook.

Riley Costas and Michael Johnson tied for the team-lead in assists with five. As a unit, Berry had 19 assists. "We've got a lot of guys that know how to share the basketball," Coach Hedgepeth said. "When you have several of these types of games where guys are sharing the basketball and teammates are making shots, it makes for a good brand of basketball to watch."

A quirk of the SAA schedule is one league game in december before the rest of the 13 SAA games take place after the new year. Still, getting off to a good start and keeping momentum going is vital to Coach Hedgepeth's squad. "At this point in the year, they're all important games," Coach Hedgepeth said. "Our goal is to perform well in our conference and hopefully compete for a conference championship, so that was a great start."

The Vikings will break for final exams before returning to action Dec. 14 in exhibition action at West Alabama. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.