Claremore, Okla. -- For the second straight season, the Mid-America Christian University Evangels have knocked off a top-10 ranked Rogers State University squad, this time 93-84 over the ninth-ranked RSU Hillcats behind a combined 50 points from Charlie Shorter and Angelo Lewis in the Evangels' Sooner Athletic Conference opener Saturday evening (Jan. 5) in Claremore, Okla. It's the Evangels' first win at RSU since joining the NAIA in 2007.
After Justyn Hammond scored to snap the eighth tie of the game and put the Hillcats (12-4, 0-2 SAC) in front 71-69, Shorter took the game over by scoring eight of the Evangels' next 10 points for a 79-71 MACU lead with 4:59 remaining.
The Hillcats weren't quite ready to concede though as consecutive buckets by Ken Holdman pulled RSU to within four at the 4:03 mark.
But a putback by Josh Minner and another score from Shorter put the Evangels (6-4, 1-0 SAC) back on top by eight.
RSU again fought back as threes by Donald Williams and J.C. Hartzler trimmed the lead to four at 85-81 with 1:20 left.
Camilo Valencia then stepped to the line and hit a pair of free throws and the Evangels put it away on the defensive end as a steal by Lewis led to a layup from Shorter that built the advantage back to eight with 45 seconds remaining.
Two free throws each from Shorter and Valencia down the stretch iced the victory for the Evangels in an intense outing that featured nine ties and eight lead changes.
The Evangels led by as many as five in the opening half after a three by Josh Young made it 22-17, but the Hillcats ran off a 19-6 run that was capped by a three from Williams that put the Hillcats up 36-28.
It was 38-30 when the Evangels closed the first half on a 15-7 spurt over the final 4:13 to pull even at 45-45 at the break.
Shorter paced the Evangels with 26 points on 11-of-18 from the field, while Lewis scored 24 on 10-of-15 from the floor along with eight rebounds. Valencia and Stephen Armstrong also scored in double-digits with 10 points, with Minner adding nine points along with a game-high 10 boards.
Williams led five Hillcats in double-figures with 22 points and Holdman added 16 with a team-high eight rebounds.
The Evangels out-rebounded the Hillcats 41-36 overall and limited RSU to only 41.9 percent (13-of-31) from the floor in the second half after allowing the Hillcats a 48.5 percent (16-of-33) shooting clip in the opening half. MACU shot 53.8 percent (35-of-65) overall from the field.
Next the Evangels are scheduled to play an exhibition game at Rhema Bible College on Tuesday evening (Jan. 8) at 7:30 p.m. in Broken Arrow, Okla.
