JACKSON – Millsaps jumped out to a 42-24 halftime lead and held off a late run in the closing minutes to top visiting Pensacola Christian 75-69 for a season-opening win on Saturday afternoon at the Hangar Dome.

The Majors scored 28 points off 20 PCC turnovers and outscored their bench 29-12 to improve to 1-0 early in the year and drop the Eagles to 1-2.

Senior guard Deonte Oscar scored a career-high 20 points off the bench on 7-of-10 shooting (3-of-3 from 3-point land) while junior guard Chris Sanders chipped in 19 points and grabbed seven boards and senior forward Rodney Rogan added 10 points and 13 rebounds.

The trio combined for 32 of the Majors' 42 points in the first half on 10-of-18 shooting to erase an 11-9 deficit and push the offense to a 33-15 run to end the period. Marques Goetsch netted nine of his team and game-high 22 points in the first six minutes of action for PCC, but it wasn't enough as Millsaps entered intermission with a 42-24 cushion.

Sanders' lay-up with 16:44 remaining in the game gave the Majors their largest lead at 20 (48-28) before the Eagles went on a 20-8 run over the next 10 minutes to cut the Millsaps lead to just 56-48 and force fifth-year head coach Tim Wise to call a timeout.

Out of the timeout, senior guard Lorenzo Bailey knocked down his only 3-point bucket of the afternoon to stretch the lead back to double-digits and jump start a 13-3 run over the next 2:47 for Millsaps.

Things got interesting the closing minutes of regulation when Brandon Dembowiak hit a lay-up to cut the lead to 16 followed by a Goetsch 3-pointer that trimmed the lead to 13.

The back-to-back buckets started an 18-6 run over the final 1:40 that included Millsaps knocking down just 4-of-9 free throws on intentional fouls and ended on eight-straight points from senior guard Ryan Vanderboegh who had 12 for the game.

A night after falling to MS College 83-57 in Clinton, 13th-year head coach Mark Goetsch and the Eagles showed a lot of fight at the end but came up just short of pulling off an incredible comeback.

The Majors continue a stretch of three-straight home games to open the year on Friday in the Millsaps Turkey Shoot-out, playing host to Louisiana College and Rust College. Millsaps and Louisiana College tip-off at 7 p.m. Friday with Saturday's game set for 3 p.m.