FORT WORTH, Texas – The No. 2 Mid-America Christian men's basketball team continued its winning ways against ranked opponents, stringing together a strong second half surge to pull away with a 92-81 victory against No. 19 Texas Wesleyan on Thursday night at the Sid Richardson Center.
Redshirt senior forward Cedric Wright pieced together one of his best performances of the season, leading Mid-America Christian (16-0, 7-0 Sooner Athletic Conference) with 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting and 6-of-6 from the foul line to go with a team-leading 10 rebounds and four assists. It was the second time in the last three games that the Evangels big recorded a double-double after tallying 11 points and 10 rebounds in the victory at No. 9 Wayland Baptist last week.
Wright was dominant in the low post for the Evangels right from the tip, as the big man poured in the first nine MACU points, capped off on a three-point play at the 16:10 mark to make it an early 9-4 MACU advantage.
Following a Joe Cook-Green bucket for Texas Wesleyan (12-4, 5-2 SAC) on the ensuing possession, a three-pointer by junior guard Tony Dorsey ignited a string of nine unanswered, finished off on another Wright lay-in with 14:02 remaining to increase the edge to 18-6.
However, the Evangels went cold over the next five minutes as Texas Wesleyan fought back with an 11-0 run to close the gap to 18-17 with 9:55 left.
Junior forward Terrance Jones snapped the spell on a layup with 8:51 to go, but a three-pointer by TWU's Peyton Sallee on the ensuing possession tied the game at 20-all.
Senior guard D'von Moore hit a runner from the free throw line on the next possession to put the Evangels back in-front as MACU rattled off eight unanswered off a pair of Ashford Golden free throws, a Golden layup and two Marvin Lowe free throws to extend the lead to 28-20 with just under six minutes on the clock.
MACU led by as much as nine points on a Marvin Lowe layup to set the score at 33-24 with 4:37 left, but Texas Wesleyan ended the half on a 10-3 run to narrow the MACU lead to 37-34 at the break.
While the two teams shot solidly from the field with MACU knocking down 14-for-31 (45.2 percent) and the Rams scoring on 13-of-31 (41.9 percent) of their shots, both teams struggled from beyond the three-point arc. The Evangels could only convert 2-for-13 (15.4 percent) while TWU made just 1-for-11 (11.1 percent). However, both teams were solid from the charity stripe with MACU going a perfect 7-for-7 while the Rams knocked down 7-of-8 (87.5 percent).
Texas Wesleyan was able to knock down a three right out of the gate in the second half to lock the score up at 37-all, but both teams would go scoreless over the next three-and-a-half minutes until Golden buried a pair of free throws to put the Evangels back in-front with 16:33 remaining.
MACU established some breathing room just moments later as Golden and D'von Moore combined to score seven unanswered, extending the Evangels advantage to 48-39 with 14:48 to go.
Midway through the second half, the Rams were able to rally with nine unanswered as TWU's Lamont Simmons finished off a three-point play to lock the score up at 56 with 10:40 to play.
On the following possession, Damarius Brooks emphatically ended the run with a three-pointer from the right wing just 19 seconds later as the Evangels rattled off 11 of the next 14 points to reclaim a 67-59 edge with just over eight minutes remaining.
At the 7:09 mark, MACU caught fire from beyond the arc as Moore and Brooks combined to knock down a trio of threes on consecutive possessions, stretching the lead to double-figures at 78-65.
Mid-America Christian never led by less than double-digits the rest of the way as a powerful three-point play by Wright with just over two minutes left gave the Evangels their largest lead of the game at 88-71.
MACU was far more efficient in the second half, knocking down 17-of-32 (53.1 percent) from the field and 6-of-12 (50 percent) from three while staying a steady 15-for-19 (79 percent) from the foul line. Overall, MACU shot 49.2 percent for the game, including 32 percent from three and 84.6 percent from the charity stripe.
Five Evangels were able to crack into double-figures as Golden chipped in a near double-double with 16 points and eight rebounds. The senior guard/forward was able to overcome a tough shooting night from the foul line, knocking down 8-for-8 from the charity stripe after going 4-for-13 from the field.
Brooks and Moore tallied 12 points apiece as both went an identical 4-for-10 from the field. Junior forward Dominick Ford rounded out the double-digit scorers with a near double-double as well, notching 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting and 2-for-3 from three to go with eight boards.
With the win, the Evangels snapped a three-game losing streak to the Rams with their last win coming in a tightly contested 77-71 matchup on Dec. 16, 2017 in Fort Worth.
Mid-America Christian will now prepare to face its fourth-ranked opponent in the last five games as the Evangels will return home on Saturday for a 3:45 p.m. matchup with No. 22 Southwestern Assemblies of God inside the Gaulke Activity Center.
