MUSKOGEE, Okla. - The Mid-America Christian University men's basketball team headed outside the Oklahoma City metropolitan area for the final time in 2019 on Saturday, looking to pick up a crucial victory in the Sooner Athletic Conference race. Their destination was Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma, where the Evangels took a tough luck loss a year ago, and the Evangels were determined to not let that happen a second time.
MACU (17-11, 10-10 SAC) dominated Bacone (2-23, 0-20 SAC) in the paint and off the bench as the Evangels took the win 97-86.
MACU scored the first two buckets of the game, and the Warriors never completely recovered. Bacone did keep the game close in the opening moments, but MACU put together a 10-0 run that stretched a 15-14 lead to a 25-14 advantage with 9:27 to play in the opening half. The Warriors were able to pull to within one again at 27-26 with 6:08 to go in the half, but in the final minutes of the opening stanza, MACU pulled their lead out to a comfortable margin. MACU ran off 13 straight points in less than three minutes to take a 40-26 lead, and the lead reached as much at 18 points in the opening half before MACU took a 46-30 lead into the locker room at the break.
The lead ballooned to 24 twice in the second half, with the last such advantage coming with 17:29 to play, but Bacone rallied to close the gap to with a 26-8 run to cut the MACU lead to 66-60 with 10:58 to go in the game. The Warriors, though, were unable to get any closer, and MACU eventually pushed their leadback to as many as 14 points on their way to the 97-86 win.
Anthony Black (24) and Zach Sawyer (22) each posted career highs in scoring to lead the Evangels. Britt Hammons added 13 points, and Will Gibbons added a dozen. Sawyer also grabbed a team high eight rebounds, Black added three assists and four steals, and Justin Bogle notched a trio of blocks.
MACU made 34 of 59 (57.6%) shots from the field, 7 of 15 (46.7%) from long range, and 22 of 31 (71%) from the foul line. The Evangels out-scored Bacone 50-30 in the paint, and MACU held a 43-26 advantage off the bench.
MACU is two games ahead of Southwestern Christian University for the eighth and final SAC tournament spot, but the Evangels are tied with Oklahoma Panhandle State University, and only one game back of Southwestern Assemblies of God University with two games left in the regular season. OPSU and SAGU will play in Waxahachie on Thursday night, and MACU will head across town to take on SCU (14-14, 9-11 SAC) that night as well. The Evangels swept SAGU, but they were swept by OPSU, so Thursday night will go a long way toward determining MACU's fate for the SAC tournament quarterfinal round. Both games are slated to tip-off at 8 p.m.
