There are some things in life that you can count on. Death. Taxes. Apparently, too, is a Miles victory over Spring Hill.

With first place on the line in the SIAC Western Division, Miles thoroughly dismantled the Badgers 65-46 Monday night at Knox-Windham Gymnasium to end a two-game slide and retake the lead in the SIAC West. The Golden Bears (13-5, 8-4) have now won 16 straight against Spring Hill (11-8, 8-5), which has not won in Fairfield in all nine of its tries.

Miles took the lead for good seven minutes into the contest. Chase Ballard knocked down 3-pointers on consecutive possessions and was followed by a third triple from Elijah Horton (six points) to erase a small deficit. Those buckets ignited a 17-2 run that saw a complete meltdown on the offensive end by Spring Hill. By the time Ballard (eight points, three rebounds) closed the seven-in-a-half minute run with another bucket, the Golden Bears led 24-10 with 5:20 left in the first half. During that span, the Badgers missed 7-of-8 shots from the field, turned the ball over eight times, and even missed its only free throw attempt (which was one more attempt than Miles had the entire game).

Alvin Miles would get a steal and breakaway layup a minute later to give the team its biggest first half lead, 28-12, with two of the Golden Bears' 12 first-half points off of turnovers. Spring Hill did a bit of damage control to close out the half but still trailed 32-25 going into intermission.

The Golden Bears quickly laid waste to any thoughts of a Spring Hill comeback to start the second half. Mykayle Carter (five points, seven rebounds) made a 3-pointer to open the scoring, which was followed by buckets from Miles and Tyrese Myrick (six points) to push the Miles advantage back into double figures, which is where it remained for the rest of the contest. The Golden Bears would add a 9-0 run, punctuated by a breakaway dunk by Carter, to take a 50-30 lead with 10:20 to go. After a Badgers bucket, Miles ran off another nine straight points to grab a 27-point advantage, 59-32, with eight minutes left.

Despite not shooting any free throws, the Golden Bears shot 45 percent from the field and 35 percent on 3-pointers. Just as impressive, Miles held Spring Hill 33 points under its season scoring average and kept the conference's top 3-point shooting team to a miserable 2-of-17 effort beyond the 3-point arc. The league's second leading scorer coming into the night, the Badgers' Walter Peggs, Jr., had just five points on 2-of-10 shooting.

Isaiah Veal scored 15 points to lead Spring Hill. Miles (15 points, seven assists, five rebounds, four steals), Corey Trotter (14 points, six rebounds, four steals), and Truitt Spencer (nine points, two assists) were the top scorers for the Golden Bears, who travel to Tuskegee on Saturday. Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m.