By Matthew D. Stokes, BerryVikings.com Lead Writer

ROME, Ga. – Berry's Mac Whalen poured in a career-high 31 points, and the men's basketball team registered a season-high in points scored as it rolled to an 85-78 victory over Southern Athletic Association foe Hendrix on Sunday afternoon at the Cage Center.

The win snapped the team's three-game losing skid and marked the program's first-ever SAA victory. In addition to Whalen's career high, Berry's 85 points was a team season-best total.

Berry improved to 3-9 overall and 1-2 in SAA play. Hendrix dropped to 5-9 and 0-3.

Whalen nailed seven of his eight field goal attempts in the first half, including all three three-point shots, as Berry walked to the locker room at halftime with an 11-point advantage. Overall Whalen also had seven assists and five rebounds. Jonathan Abrams tallied 18 points and seven assists. Jake Wright added 11 points and 5 rebounds.

Jaren Riley led four Hendrix players in double figures with 23 points. Colton Primm, Luke Vance and Drew Nikolovski chipped in 18, 12 and 10 points respectively.

"I think the biggest thing that we talked about coming into the game was defending Jaren Riley," said Berry Head Coach Jeff Haarlow. "He had 23 points, but by halftime he hadn't taken a field goal. Lee McCloud and Hunter Smoak did a great job on him defensively. He scored his points at the end of the game, but for 37 minutes we did an awfully good job on a really good player."

Haarlow pointed to the team's 20 to 9 assist to turnover ratio as another factor in the team's success.

"When you share the ball and end up with 20 assists, you're going to score a lot," Haarlow said.

Berry will return to action on the road against Covenant College on Thursday at 8 p.m.

"It's a tough, tough place to win," said Haarlow of Covenant's Barnes PE Center. "We'll have to play well."