Milligan wins AAC regular season crown, Stafford and Evangelista play in final game for Brenau

Gainesville, Georgia - The Golden Tigers fought hard against the first place Buffaloes but ultimately fall in the final AAC contest of the season to Milligan (21-7 overall, 19-3 AAC)

This final regular season game featured a team with nothing to lose in its last game of the season and another that needed to win to secure the number one-seed in the conference tournament. This lead to a hotly contested first half with seven lead changes and three ties. Brenau has been at its best this season with SG Bertolini running the show and either penetrating the defense and finding an open shooter or delivering a pass down to the low block and allowing Kayla Stafford and the other post players to go to work.  Bertolini had six of her career high 10 assist in the first half and was able to find Kristina Peach and Anna Gliatta several times for open threes. Both Peach and Gliatta knocked down clutch shots in the first and brought the halftime score to a 36-33 Milligan lead. The Achilles heel for the Golden Tigers has been the inability to lock down opposing teams in the third quarter. Today's game was no different as Milligan hit on 71% of their shots in the third quarter. Lauren Longmire led the Buffs with 5-6 shooting and 13 of her 19 points in the third. Brenau did keep it close in the fourth quarter but Milligan length started to wear down the Golden Tiger guards and sealed the win for the Buffs.

Stafford, in her final game at Brenau finished strong with another double-double her ninth on the season and third in a row. Stafford finished with 14 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks. Peach finished with a team high 21 points and Gliatta despite fouling out finished with 18 points and seven rebounds. Isabella Evangelista finished her career with three points five rebounds and three assists.

Along with Longmire, Semaj Clark and Jaycie Jenkins led the Buffs with 21 points and six rebounds and 16 points and nine rebounds respectively in the victory.

Here's what Coach Pollie Simpson had to say when asked about the season as a whole. "We came up just short of getting to go to the tournament, but these girls have played so hard these last few weeks of the season. They have shown so much potential and fire, which makes us excited to get back and start working for next season. As we have 4 impactful seniors graduating, we look forward to bringing in new faces who will help us reach our goals. Their roles will be hard to fill, but it excites us for the future of this program."

Brenau finishes the 2024-25 campaign at (7-20 overall, 6-16 AAC). Milligan wins the AAC regular season crown and will have the number one-seed going into next weeks AAC Conference Championship at Kingsport, TN.