OKLAHOMA CITY - The back-and-forth season for the Mid-America Christian University men's basketball team on Thursday night. The Evangels picked up their third straight win on a pair of late shots, punching their ticket to the postseason at the same time.
MACU (15-10, 8-9 SAC) rallied to take the victory over Central Christian College of Kansas (11-12, 5-11 SAC) 81-70, and that win clinched MACU a berth in the NCCAA regional championship if they don't win the Sooner Athletic Conference tournament.
Central Christian opened a 13-5 lead early in the game, but MACU rallied to tie the score at 19 on a free throw from Britt Hammons with 10:51 to play in the opening half. The momentum of that comeback stayed on the side of MACU, as the Evangels took the lead and pushed the margin all the way to 11 in the half, before the Tigers bounced back with a 10-3 run that included a 40-foot buzzer-beater from Isaiah Rivera that cut MACU's halftime lead to 48-44.
CCCK scored the first seven points of the second half, and the Tigers led for most of the first eight minutes of the frame. Charles Beauregard, Jr. helped lead a MACU comeback, tallying back-to-back buckets in the emiddle stages of the half to tie the score at 57, but moments later, CCCK ran off eight straight points to open a 68-61 lead - their largest of the night - with 7:20 to go.
The Evangels battled fiercely to trim the margin, and eventually, slowly, they were able to claw their way back. With 3:21 to play, Beauregard, Jr. buried a 3-pointer to get MACU to within a single bucket at 74-72, and after a missed jumper, William Gibbons drove the lane and finished through contact on the right side of the rim to knot the score at 74 with 2:30 to play. The lead changed hands three times in the final two minutes, the last of which came with 19 seconds left.
Anthony Black had hit a jumper from the right elbow extended to give MACU the 77-76 lead with 1:04 left on the clock, and after the Tigers reclaimed the lead with 36 seconds to play, it was Black who buried a dagger of a 3-point shot from the left wing corner to give MACU the 80-78 edge with only 19 seconds remaining. After a missed 3-pointer, a timeout, and a foul from the Tigers, Cade Upshaw stepped to the foul line and sank the second of two free throws to provide MACU with the final margin of victory, 81-78.
Beauregard, Jr. led MACU with 16 points in the game, Black tallied 12, and Gibbons and Dominick Ford each poured in 10. Justin Bogle led the Evangels with seven boards, Black and Beauregard, Jr. each had a trio of assists, and Bogle picked up three blocked shots.
MACU made 25 of 54 (46.3%) shots in the game, including 7 of 18 (38.9%) 3-point tries. The Evangels made a living at the foul line in the game, connecting on 24 of 31 (77.4%) attempts from the charity stripe.
The win vaulted MACU back into the top-8 in the SAC standings with five games left, lifting MACU into a tie for seventh place in the league. MACU will try to keep the momentum going on Saturday when they welcome the NAIA #12 Langston University Lions (18-6, 10-6 SAC) to the Gualke Activity Center at 4 p.m.
