OKLAHOMA CITY - The brackets have been announced as the Mid-America Christian University basketball teams are set to host the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) Central Region basketball championship tournaments at the Gaulke Activity Center this week. The Evangels will participate on the women's side of the event, while the men will serve as hosts without participating on the court.
MACU will welcome in teams from three other institutions to the championships. The women's side will feature MACU, Southwestern Assemblies of God University, Southwestern Christian University, and Nebraska Christian College; and on the men's side, the championship will be contested between SCU and NCC.
The tournament will feature four games played over two days. The first day's competition will consist of three games, beginning at 3 p.m. central time. The first two games will be the women's semifinals, and the men's championship game will round out the night.
The tournament will tip off with the top-seeded MACU women playing host to NCC. MACU comes into play in the tournament as the only team in the field on either side to have fewer than 10 losses on the season, as MACU sits at 20-9. The Evangels have been particularly good on their home floor this season, racking up an 11-2 mark at the Gaulke Activity Center. Alexis Shannon will have an opportunity to continue to climb up MACU's career scoring list, as she is 53 points behind Tara Bengs for 7th on the MACU scoring list.
The Evangels will take on Jenna Bloodworth's NCC Sentinels, in just their second season of competition at the NCCAA Division I level. The Sentinels have a record of 15-12 entering the postseason, and after a 5-11 start to the season, NCC has turned up the intensity in the second half, racking up wins in 10 of their last 11 games to finish three games above the .500 mark. Bloodworth's team is led by Jazmyne Santiel at nearly 20 points per game.
The second game of the first day will feature a matchup that has been played twice this season already as the #2 SAGU Lady Lions will battle the #3 SCU Eagles. SAGU took the two regular season meetings, though they needed overtime to beat SCU in Waxahachie on January 17. SAGU is led by Lexi Rich at 19.3 points per game, and Tiffany Phillips continues to make strides in her fourth year at the helm of the Program. The Lady Lions advanced to the Sooner Athletic Conference semifinal round before being knocked out, and they had won two in a row prior to that.
Southwestern Christian is in its fourth season under Mark Arthur, who has helped build SCU's program as the AD for the last eight years. His Eagles have been competitive, but they have struggled to get over the top in the SAC, just missing the SAC tournament this season. The Eagles are looking to make a return trip to the NCCAA National Championship tournament, as the Eagles are the defending regional champions.
On the men's side, SCU and NCC are the lone participants. Their game for the men's regional championship will wrap up the evening's events on Wednesday.
SCU narrowly missed the SAC tournament in men's play this season as well, but the Eagles are certainly no slouch. SCU had a pair of wins over NAIA top-25 competition this season, and the Eagles were near the top of the SAC standings at the midway point in the conference schedule. Jon Mack's club is led by three scorers in double-figures with Darius Madkin (15.3 ppg), Patrick White (12.1 ppg), and Anthony Thomas (10.2 ppg) leading the way.
NCC's men struggled a bit early in the year with some long trips to face some pretty good teams - including a pair of NAIA top-25 opponents in California in November. The Sentinels opened the 2019 portion of their schedule with a five game winning streak, but their up-and-down season concluded with them losing six of their final nine games.
The women's tournament championship will be contested on Thursday evening at 6 p.m. between the winners of Wednesday's semifinals.
The participating teams will all participate in a Christian Service Project before the regional championships commence, and the two champions will earn the region's automatic bids to the NCCAA Division I national championships at Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana next week.
The all-region teams will be announced on Wednesday, prior to the tip off of the first game of the day at 3 p.m.. To follow all the action of the tournaments, the official tournament pages - which include team information, schedules, links to live coverage and more - can be found here for the women, and here for the men.
