Ft. Worth, Texas – The No. 9-ranked and Sooner Athletic Conference regular season champion Texas Wesleyan University Rams jumped out to a big lead and never looked back in defeating the Mid-America Christian University Evangels 93-60 tonight (Feb. 28) in the Sooner Athletic Conference semifinals at the Sid Richardson Center in Ft. Worth, Texas.  It's the first win for the Rams over the Evangels this year, as MACU won both meetings in the regular season.

The Rams will now play Friday (Mar. 3) in the tourney semifinals against fourth-seeded USAO, who survived 100-99 in overtime against Wayland Baptist University.

TWU took over from the outset, scoring the first 10 points of the game in the opening two minutes.

The Evangels tried to hang in as a three by Jordan Rhodes and jumper from Devonse Reed twice made it an eight point game.

But the Rams gained even more separation with a 10-0 spurt and extended the lead to 50-30 at the break.

The Rams then started the second half much like the first with six straight points and eventually led by as many as 39 points.

Reed and Ex'Zavia Seaton each had 12 points and six rebounds to lead the Evangels (16-15).

Rhodes scored 10 points and Malcolm Mann had a team-high four assists for MACU.

The Rams (24-6) got 23 points from both Dion Rogers and Trevon Jeffrey, with Jeffrey also pulling down a game-high 10 boards. Naiel Smith led TWU with nine assists.