Ft. Worth, Texas -- The Mid-America Christian University Evangels outscored the Texas Wesleyan University Rams 56-40 in the second half and got a career-high 32 points from Semar Farris to win their Sooner Athletic Conference opener 96-86 Wednesday afternoon (Dec. 4) at the Sid Richardson Center in Ft. Worth, Texas.
The Evangels had trailed the entire way and were down six at the 8:19 mark of the second half when they made their move as a three-point play by Angelo Lewis and a three from Farris tied the score at 77-77.
A tip-in by Josh Minner would give the Evangels their first lead of the game and Farris then converted a steal and layup that capped a 12-2 run for an 81-77 lead with 4:47 left.
After a three by Stephen Armstrong and jumper from Farris was sandwiched around five points from Jorge Redmon, a layup by Minner and two free throws from Luke Mergerson stretched the lead to 90-81 at the 2:44 mark.
The Rams came back with a jumper by Dallas Jones and two freebies by Redmon to come within five, but a three by Reggie Davis countered their run and built the lead back to eight with 1:22 left.
It was 93-86 when Farris sealed the victory with a jumper and then recorded his sixth steal of the game with 13 seconds left to close it out.
The Evangels (5-1) got off to a slow start in the opening half, falling behind 10-2 and then 13-4 at the 16:11 mark.
MACU trailed by as many as 11 in the first 20 minutes but rallied to within two on three occasions before being down 46-40 at the break.
Farris shot 12-of-19 from the field overall and 4-of-9 from three-point range. He also dished out seven assists and his six steals was also a career-best. Lewis scored 18 and Davis added 12 points with a team-high seven rebounds. Minner and Jarius Wilson each scored 10 points.
Redmon led the Rams (6-4) with 25 points and Rilwan Bakare scored 21. Eli Alexander had a game-high nine boards, while Jervon Hooks paced the Rams with seven assists.
It was a tale of two halves shooting the ball, which proved decisive in MACU's second half run. The Evangels shot 61.8 percent (21-of-34) in the second half after only shooting 40 percent (14-of-35) in the first half.
Contrast that with the Rams recording a 57.6 percent (19-of-33) shooting percentage in the opening but cooling off to only a 44.1 percent (15-of-34) clip in the second.
The Evangels will next host USAO in another conference matchup Saturday afternoon (Dec. 7) at 5 p.m. inside the Gaulke Activity Center.
