January 15, 2008
IRVING, Texas – Edrick
Montgomery, Lorenzo Bailey and Blake
Martinez scored 14 points apiece
and Cameron Varnado added 10 points as streaking Millsaps knocked off
the host Crusaders at the Maher Center Monday night 66-55.
It marked the 10th-straight
win for the newly ranked Majors, entering the D3hoops.com
Top 25 Poll at No. 23 on Monday afternoon, as they picked up their
longest winning streak since the 1995-96 SCAC Championship season.
Millsaps (13-1, 5-0 SCAC) shot 55 percent in the first half
to own a 13-point lead, 37-24, at the break, led by Montgomery with
12 of his 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting. Dallas (8-8) hit just 7-of-22
field goals in the period for 32 percent and were held without a bucket
from downtown (0-for-4) despite hitting 11-of-12 free throws.
The Majors opened the game on an 8-0 run over the first 4:56 with four
different scorers and never looked back, building their lead to as many
as 22 without trailing in the contest.
Dallas, however came out of
the lockerroom firing, scoring the first seven points to cut the lead
down to just six, 37-31, with 15:33 remaining. That's as close as they
would get as the Majors countered the 7-0 run with a 15-4 run of their
own over the next 4:17 to pull away.
The deciding factor in the
game was bench play, as Millsaps outscored the Crusaders 26-6, thanks
to Varnado and Martinez who combined for 24 points. Martinez
was 5-of-8 from the field, including a career-high four 3s,
as he fell one point shy of tying his career-high.
The Crusaders were led by
Joe Packard with a game-high 22 points on 7-of-12 aim, while Nick Netsch
added nine points and eight rebounds in a full 40 minutes.
