WINONA LAKE, Ind. – The Mid-America Christian University men's basketball team entered Thursday afternoon's National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) consolation semifinal with a chip of their shoulder, and the Evangels played like they had something to prove.
MACU (20-14) led for all but the first 45 seconds of the game as they exacted revenge against the College of the Ozarks (22-13) – who had beaten the Evangels 73-73 in the NCCAA Central Region championship game six days ago – by taking an 81-70 win to advance to the fifth-place game on Friday.
MACU made nine of their first 11 shots in the game to take a 22-7 lead at the 13:07 mark of the first half. In the middle stages of the first half, the Evangels cooled significantly from the field, but they maintained their lead. College of the Ozarks rallied to cut the deficit to 10 at the 7:58 mark, when Canyon Smith buried a 3-pointer, and another Smith 3-pointer with 4:52 to play in the first half cut MACU's lead to 31-28. Treydon Rackley trimmed the MACU lead to one at the 3:39 mark, but the Evangels held the advantage and MACU scored six of the final 10 points of the first half, taking a 39-36 lead into the locker room.
Ozarks scored the first bucket of the second half, but MACU quickly ran their lead out to 21 with a 17-2 run that spanned nearly six minutes early in the second half. From that point forward, the result was never in doubt. The Bobcats did trim the Evangels' lead to 10 at 71-61 with 4:58 to play, and twice they pulled within nine, but they never got any closer as MACU sealed the game at the foul line late to take the 81-70 win.
Chinua Massena finished with a team-leading 16 points in the game – a mark which tied for the lead among all scorers. Will Gibbons and Justin Bogle each netted 15 in the game, and the 15 points from Gibbons marked his season-high performance. Gibbons added a team-leading eight rebounds as well.
MACU blistered the nets at a clip of 50.9% (29-for-57) from the floor, and a 50% (8-for-16) pace from long range. At the foul line, MACU was 15-for-26 (57.7%), but the Evangels dominated in the enhanced scoring categories. MACU led 13-3 on fast breaks, 17-12 in points off turnovers, 36-22 in the paint, and 25-13 off the bench.
MACU will play for fifth place in the National Championship on Friday evening. The Evangels will face the winner of the other consolation semifinal between Life Pacific College (14-12) and Warner University (20-14) on Friday at 6 p.m. central time.
