February 17, 2008

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Junior Chad Songy netted a season-high 17 points to pace four Millsaps scorers in double figures and the Majors survived foul trouble late in the game to top Trinity (Texas) 77-68 and sweep an all-important Texas road trip.

Since a pair of road losses to then 14th-ranked Centre College and DePauw U, Millsaps has strung together six-straight victories to move to 21-3 overall and 12-2 in SCAC West play.

Back-to-back buckets from Trinity's B.J. Moon, sandwiched between a 3-pointer from Millsaps' Lorenzo Bailey, to open the game gave the Tigers an early 5-3 lead before the Majors retook the lead at 13-10 and never looked back.

Junior Chris Sanders scored 11 of his 15 points in the first half on 5-of-6 shooting, including a jumper with 9 seconds left before the half, en route to 57 percent shooting for Millsaps from the floor and 47 percent shooting from 3-point land.

Sanders' jumper gave the Majors a 9-point halftime lead, 42-33, in a hot-shooting half for both teams. Not to be outdone, the host Tigers shot 54 percent from the floor, led by Jonathan Lewis with nine points on 4-of-5 aim.

Out of intermission, TU quickly cut the Millsaps lead down to two at 45-43 with 15:18 left, putting together a 10-3 run thanks in part to six points from Moon over the stretch inside the paint on easy buckets.

The Majors countered the TU run with a 10-2 run of their own, pushing the lead back out to double figures, 55-45, off a pair of 3s from Songy and Russell Booth to regain momentum.

From there, Millsaps allowed the Tigers to get within five twice under the 5-minute mark before turning up the defense. Senior Edrick Montgomery picked up a big block with 2:03 left in regulation and the Majors pulled down seven defensive boards in the final 3:25 to hang on for the 9-point win at 77-68 despite three players with four fouls.

TU was led by Lewis who scored a game-high 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting, followed by Moon with 13 and Luke Caldarera with 12 off the bench.

Songy led Millsaps with 17 points, while Bailey and Sanders chipped in 15 apiece and Montgomery added 10. Sanders also grabbed a game-high eight rebounds to go along with three assists and two steals.

The Majors will close out the regular season on Saturday, Feb. 23, playing host to Hendrix College during the 2nd Annual "Take A Kid to the Game" Day. Tip-off is set for 3 p.m.