OKLAHOMA CITY – Since joining the Mid-America Christian University men's basketball team, Andre Horne has emerged as a consistent scoring threat for the Evangels. On Thursday night, Horne stole the show with his best performance at MACU thus far.
Horne made 10-of-12 shots, including a perfect 8-for-8 shooting from inside the arc, on his way to a season-best 29 points as MACU (14-9, 8-7 SAC) took a convincing win from John Brown University (13-10, 7-7 SAC), 89-66.
JBU scored the first two points of the night, but MACU answered when Horne scored with just 44 seconds elapsed in the game. Horne knocked down his first of two 3-pointers just over a minute later, putting MACU on top 5-2, and the Evangels led for the rest of the night. The game remained close through the first eight minutes of play, but at the 12:04 mark, Daniel William made the first of consecutive 3-pointers to help ignite an 8-0 run that stretched MACU's lead to 10 at 20-10. JBU cut the margin to three on four different occasions in the waning moments of the first half, but they were unable to get any closer, and MACU stretched their lead back out to 39-30 at the half.
Neither team made much headway in tilting the game in their favor in the early going of the second stanza, but with 14:36 to play in the game, Keyshawn Perkins knocked down a triple to restore MACU's 10-point lead at 49-39. JBU quickly pulled to within four, but as with the 3-point gap in the first half, they were unable to break that barrier, and MACU began to slowly pull away late. Horne scored with 5:43 to play to put MACU up 10 for good, and later, a 13-5 spurt put MACU up 82-62. The lead peaked at 23 points with 43 seconds to play on a 3-point play from Javan Perry, as MACU cruised home with the win, 89-66.
Horne led all scorers with 29 points in the game, and he was one of four Evangels in double-figures. Perkins and William each scored a dozen, and Perry finished with 10. Justin Bogle led the Evangels with seven rebounds, and Perkins dished out a team-best six assists. MACU made 31-of-57 (54.4%) shots in the game, and 11-of-27 (40.7%) from long range. At the foul line, MACU made 16-of-20 (80%) attempts. MACU's biggest advantage in the game came in points off turnovers, where they held a 33-16 edge.
The Evangels will look to stay close in the Sooner Athletic Conference race on Saturday when they head east to play their final road game of the 2017-18 regular season. The Evangels will do battle with the Bacone College Warriors (4-20, 0-14 SAC) on Saturday at 5 p.m.
