Miles led for nearly the entire game but had to fight back a late surge by Oakwood before taking a 59-48 decision Saturday night at Knox-Windham Gymnasium. The win pushed the Golden Bears record to 3-0, the fourth straight season the team has won its first three games.

A steal and layup by Rodney Battle gave Miles the lead for good less than six minutes into the contest. That basket started an 11-1 run by the Golden Bears, who held the Ambassadors without a field goal for more than five minutes during that span. A jumper by Chase Ballard (seven points, three assists) with nine minutes left in the half pushed the advantage to 20-9 and the lead got as large as 14 points after two Yasim Hooker free throws made the score 27-13 with 4:57 left before halftime. But a late bucket by A'Drelin Robinson cut the Oakwood deficit to 31-23 at the break.

Each time Miles looked as if it were going to pull away in the second half, Oakwood would make a a few plays to bring its deficit back to single digits. When Mykayle Carter sandwiched 3-pointers around an Ambassadors 3-ball, the Golden Bears held a 12-point advantage midway through the second half. But when Edman Steward scored with 2:42 left in the ball game, the Golden Bears led by just a 52-46 score.

Reserve big Corey Trotter (six points, five rebounds) was able to come up with big plays on back-to-back possessions down the stretch. His offensive rebound led to him knocking down two free throws. He then took a nice dish from Carter on Miles' next possession for another score that pushed the lead to 56-46 with 1:43 to go. Oakwood was never able to get back to within single digits for the rest of the night.

Steward scored a team-high 12 points and Judelin Prophete has 11 points and 14 rebounds to lead Oakwood. Battle scored a game-high 18 points, Carter added 10 points, and Hooker had six points, four rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two steals for Miles, which hosts Montevallo on Tuesday night. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.