OKLAHOMA CITY – Off to the best start in the NAIA era, the No. 18 Mid-America Christian men's basketball team will be going after its seventh straight victory in a home matchup against Randall at 3 p.m. at the Gaulke Activity Center on Saturday.
LAST TIME OUT
Mid-America Christian (6-0) won its second straight road game on Wednesday after using a big second half surge to pull away from Northern New Mexico (1-6) with an 89-75 victory. The Evangels were able to take as large as an 11-point lead in the first half before the Eagles stormed back late in the period, cutting the MACU lead to just 39-38 at the half on a buzzer-beating three.
The Evangels came out firing on all cylinders in the second half, quickly putting together an 11-3 run in the first 2:25 to stretch the advantage back out to nine. D'von Moore was lights out in the second half, burying four three-pointers, including a dagger at the 8:37 mark that gave MACU its largest lead of the contest at 18. NNMC fought back to make it a nine-point game with just under four minutes remaining, but buckets by Terrance Jones on back-to-back possessions helped the Evangels stave off an Eagles rally.
SCOUTING THE SAINTS
Randall will make its way into Saturday's contest with a 2-5 record two days removed from an 89-61 loss at Lubbock Christian after pulling out a 70-67 home win against Oklahoma City on Tuesday.
The Saints this season are led by sophomore forward Jordan Marshall, who is nearly averaging a double-double at 12.6 points per game and 9.6 rebounds per game. Sophomore guard Brent Clark is the only other RU player averaging double-figures in scoring, tallying 12 ppg and is converting on 88 percent of his free throw attempts.
HISTORY WITH THE SAINTS
Mid-America Christian possesses a 5-1 record against Randall in the NAIA era and have won 12 of 16 since the 2003-04 campaign. The Evangels and Saints will be facing each other for the second time in a week as MACU came away with a 71-53 victory in Moore, Okla. last Saturday. In the win, junior guard Tony Dorsey scored a season-high 19 points and ripped down six boards to lead the Evangels to the win.
THE STREAK CONTINUES
The last time MACU played the Saints, the Evangels won its fifth-straight game, topping last season's 4-0 start for most wins to begin a season in the NAIA era. With the victory at Northern New Mexico, the Evangels expanded that win streak to six. Now Mid-America Christian is chasing the program's NAIA era win streak record, which was eight set by MACU's 2015-16 NAIA National Championship team. The Evangels could tie that record at home as the Evangels next two games will be on Saturday against Randall and on Thursday, Nov. 21 against Langston in MACU's Sooner Athletic Conference opener. The longest win streak in the last two decades for MACU came during the 2003-04 campaign as the Evangels closed out the season with 19 in a row to win the 2004 NCCAA Division II National Championship.
THE MIDAS TOUCH
After starting off the season 4-for-15 (26.6 percent) from the three-point arc, senior guard/forward Ashford Golden has found his stroke from three. Between the two road games at Randall and Northern New Mexico, Golden has knocked down 7-of-12 (58.3 percent) from beyond the arc, raising his three-point shooting percentage by 14 points to 40.7 percent on the season.
