OKLAHOMA CITY – The No. 18 Mid-America Christian men's basketball team overcame a slow start on Thursday night to pull away with a 92-65 victory over Langston in its Sooner Athletic Conference opener, tying the program's NAIA era record eight-game win streak.
Senior guard D'von Moore continued to stay red hot from the field, leading Mid-America Christian (8-0, 1-0 SAC) off the bench with 24 points on a blistering 8-for-13 from the field and 6-for-11 from beyond the three-point arc. The Evangels also got some strong production from senior guard/forward Ashford Golden, who finished with 17 points and six boards.
Despite breaking the 90-point barrier for the sixth time this season, the Evangels got off to an incredibly cold start, scoring just seven points through the first 10 minutes as a Latarius Lloyd bucket with 10:55 extended the Langston (5-2, 0-1 SAC) advantage to 16-7.
Then, it became Moore's show. The Statesboro, Ga. native buried a three-pointer with 9:47 to go to start a 17-2 run. Moore scored all 17 of the Evangels points during the streak, which included five three-pointers with the last coming with 5:34 left to give Mid-America Christian the 24-18 lead.
After the Lions trimmed the lead to 24-21 on a three-point play, Marvin Lowe provided a spark off the bench with a layup and a three-point play of his own, followed by another Moore triple with 3:42 remaining to extend the edge to 32-21.
Following lead being cut back down to nine, Golden and Damarius Brooks gave MACU its largest lead of the half with three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to make it 40-25 with 1:45 to go until the half.
The Lions managed trim their deficit to 42-29 with nine second left, but it gave Moore had one last three-point attempt at the buzzer. However, his attempt just missed as MACU held its 13-point advantage heading into the locker room.
Even though the Evangels couldn't have started off colder, MACU still managed to finish the half with a 45.7 shooting percentage and blazed an 8-for-17 (47.1 percent) clip from the three-point arc. Defensively, MACU was able to limit Langston to just 11-for-30 (36.7 percent) from the floor and 1-for-7 (14.3 percent) from three.
Mid-America Christian never relented as the Evangels continued to pull away over the course of the second half as MACU never led by less than 20 after a pair of Moore free throws extended MACU's lead to 56-35 with 14:56 remaining in the game.
The Evangels lights out shooting carried over in the second half, finishing the 20-minute period 16-for-28 (57.1 percent) from the field and 5-for-11 (45.5 percent) from three while also getting some strong contributions from the foul line, going 13-for-17 (76.5 percent) from the charity stripe.
Offensively, Cedric Wright and Brooks rounded out the double-digit scoring for MACU with 10 points apiece while Tony Dorsey dished out a team-high five assists.
By winning their eighth straight game to open the 2019-20 season, the Evangels have officially tied the program's NAIA era win streak record that was originally set by the 2015-16 NAIA Championship team.
Mid-America Christian can own the record outright if it can go into McPherson, Kan. on Saturday and come away with a win at Central Christian. Tip-off is slated for 3:45 p.m. at the Dr. Jerry E. Alexander Arena.
