OKLAHOMA CITY – The No. 18 Mid-America Christian men's basketball team is preparing to face one of its toughest tests of the season as the Evangels will take on No. 11 LSU Shreveport Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. in the Gaulke Activity Center. MACU will follow it up with their closest road game of the season with a 1 p.m. bout at Randall University on Saturday.
LAST TIME OUT
Mid-America Christian (3-0) faced a tough test against Texas A&M-Texarkana playing in its first game in program history, but MACU was able to hold off a late Eagles rally to claim its third straight victory to open the season. The Evangels led by as much as 12 in the second half and possessed a 10-point lead with 2:10 remaining following a Calon Woodson three-pointer to make it an 86-76 game. However, the Eagles were able to chip away at the MACU advantage, trimming the TAMUT deficit to four with 28 seconds left.
After MACU missed a pair of free throws, the Eagles had an opportunity to make it a one-possession game, but Woodson forced TAMUT into taking a contested three-point shot that was rebounded by Dominick Ford to put the Eagles into foul mode. Ford knocked down one of two to extend the lead to five before Tony Dorsey came up with a steal with six seconds left to seal the victory.
The Evangels also played an exhibition game at NCAA Division II Drury, one of the top D-II programs in the country, but the Panthers defeated MACU by score of 98-79 on Friday, Nov. 1.
SCOUTING THE PILOTS
The 11th-ranked LSU Shreveport Pilots enter Thursday night's contest after getting off to a 4-0 start to the 2019-20 season. The Pilots are coming off a 117-68 victory over Mississippi University of Women on Monday. LSU Shreveport came into the season picked to finish second in the Red River Athletic Conference, placing only behind fellow NAIA powerhouse LSU Alexandria in the conference's preseason poll.
Leading the 10th ranked scoring offense in the NAIA will be senior guard Tra'Quan Knight. The Pensacola, Fla. product is averaging 20.8 points per game while knocking down 70.8 percent of his shots and converting on 44.4% of his three-point attempts.
The Pilots have also been getting steady production from senior forward Gilbert Thomas and senior guard Kadavion Evans with both players averaging 16.8 pts/g. Senior forward Andre Washington leads LSUS on the glass, nearly averaging a double-double with 10.3 rebounds per game and 9.5 pts/g.
HISTORY WITH THE PILOTS
The Evangels and Pilots will be playing each other for the first time during the NAIA era. The last time Mid-America Christian and LSU Shreveport met was during the 2005-06 season as the Pilots pulled away with a 109-83 victory in Waxahachie, Texas.
SCOUTING THE SAINTS
Randall makes its way into the weekend with a 1-3 record as the Evangels will be the Saints third Sooner Athletic Conference opponent in five games after opening the season with a 75-74 loss to Langston and nearly pulled off an upset with an 86-84 loss at No. 13 Science & Arts on Wednesday night.
Sophomore Jordan Marshall leads the Saints scoring efforts at 13.5 pts/g while Brent Clark is scoring at a 11 pts/g clip. Marshall leads RU on the glass, averaging 8.5 reb/g while Isaiah Tillman is dishing out four assists per game.
HISTORY WITH THE SAINTS
Mid-America Christian has won 11 of the last 15 meetings since the 2003-04 season, including five of the last six. In their two meetings last season, the Evangels were challenged by Randall at home as MACU held on for an 87-80 on Oct. 31, 2018 before soundly beating the Saints on their home floor by a score of 90-68 on Dec. 11, 2018.
FIRST TO 100 WINS?
Thursday night's top 25 battle could be an absolute shootout between two of the top scoring teams in the NAIA. While the Pilots are the 10th best scoring team in the NAIA at 101.5 pts/g, the Evangels are the fifth-best offense in the country at 103.3 pts/g. While the Pilots offensive attack is top heavy with three players averaging more than 16 pts/g, the Evangels offense is more balanced with nine players averaging seven or more points per contest.
SLAUGHTER HOUSE
Junior guard Carlos Slaughter is coming off his best performance of the season last Monday, as he led the Evangels off the bench with 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting and converted on 3-for-5 from the charity stripe. Heading into that game against the Eagles, Slaughter was averaging just 4.0 pts/g and made just 3-for-7 from the field, but the hometown hero proved to be the difference-maker in MACU's win against the Eagles.
