OKLAHOMA CITY – The No. 2 Mid-America Christian men's basketball team faced its toughest test of the season against No. 22 Southwestern Assemblies of God, but the Evangels pulled away with some late free throws and a crucial defensive stop in a 90-86 victory on Saturday afternoon at the Gaulke Activity Center.
Senior guard Ashford Golden led the Evangels with 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting to go with 11 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. The Oklahoma City native also recorded three assists and a pair of blocked shots. Redshirt senior forward Cedric Wright also added 19 points on an efficient 8-for-10 from the floor to go with six boards.
Mid-America Christian (17-0, 8-0 Sooner Athletic Conference) trailed by as much as eight with 4:04 remaining and were down by five with 2:34 left before mounting a strong surge. Golden put back a missed three by Tony Dorsey to trim the deficit to one before D'von Moore, who missed his previous six three-pointers buried a pivotal three-pointer from the top of the key to tie the score at 78 with 1:26 left.
After MACU forced a Southwestern Assemblies of God (13-3, 5-3 SAC) turnover, Moore once again came up big with a crossover and step-back triple again from the top of the key to give the Evangels the 81-78 lead with 1:02 left.
Wright closed out the 10 unanswered run with a pair of free throws after drawing a foul on the rebound during SAGU's ensuing offensive possession to extend the lead to 83-78 with 52 seconds to go.
SAGU's Nykolas Mason buried some crucial three-pointers in the final minute to eventually close the gap to one at 87-86 with 12 seconds remaining. After drawing a foul a second later, Dorsey knocked down one of two free throws to extend the MACU edge to two.
On the Lions' final offensive possession of the game, Mason tried to go for the win on a three from the left side, but Golden tightly contested the shot, forcing a miss before coming up with the rebound and was fouled with 1.8 seconds left. Golden iced the game from the free throw line by converting both attempts.
While the game was tightly contested at the finish, the beginning was anything but. Mid-America Christian opened the matchup by holding SAGU scoreless over the first seven minutes while Golden and Wright combined to score the Evangels' first 14 points.
Dominick Ford knocked down a three from the left corner on a nice skip pass by Dorsey with 14:33 on the clock to give the Evangels their largest lead of the game at 17-0.
Southwestern Assemblies was able to flip the script on the Evangels following its first bucket at the 12:54 mark by going on a run of 13 unanswered over the next three minutes to close the gap to 17-13 with 9:53 to play.
Ford buried another corner three with 9:38 left to snap the run, but SAGU continued to chip away with seven of the next nine points to make it a one-point game at 20-19 with 8:30 to go until the half.
The Evangels strung together a strong response by going on a 13-5 run, capped off on a Marvin Lowe putback and along with another Ford three-pointer to make it a 33-24 MACU advantage with just under six minutes remaining.
However, the Lions continued to hang around, chipping away at the Evangels edge over the next few minutes until back-to-back scores by Joshua Kashila and Mason tied the game up at 37 with 3:38 left.
MACU swung back with a big run of their own to close out the half as a Dorsey hit a pull-up jumper off an inbound pass ignited a string of 10 unanswered, finished off on a beautiful spin move and fastbreak layup by Terrance Jones with 1:43 to go to make it 47-37. SAGU's Mason made a layup with six seconds left to end the half, sending MACU into the break with a 47-39 advantage.
Southwestern Assemblies captured the early momentum in the second half, outscoring the Evangels 14-6 as a Kashila three locked the score up at 53-all with 15:05 left.
Following a Lowe bucket on the ensuing possession, the Lions rattled off eight straight to pull ahead with a 61-55 lead capped off on a Terrance Hubby three-point play with 11:43 on the clock.
The Evangels could only close the gap to one on a pair of occasions before SAGU was able to get some breathing room, building as much as an eight-point lead at 76-68 with 4:04 left prior to MACU's strong rally.
Despite the struggles from three-point range, gunning just 8-for-30 (26.7 percent), Mid-America Christian was still able to shoot an efficient 32-for-67 (47.8 percent) from the field and 18-for-24 (75 percent) from the charity stripe.
While the Lions were able to contest by shooting 32-for-72 (44.4 percent) from the floor and 11-for-29 (37.9 percent) from three, it was MACU's free throw shooting and rebounding that made a big difference. The Evangels won the rebounding battle 43-36, including an 18-to-9 edge on the offensive glass while SAGU shot just 11-for-21 (52.4 percent) from the free throw line.
Five Evangels finished in double-figures as Ford joined Golden and Ford with his second double-double of the season, rattling off 14 points on 5-of-10 from the field and 4-for-7 from three to go with 10 rebounds.
Jones finished his night with 13 points on 3-of-6 shooting and 7-of-8 from the foul line while Moore tallied 10 points, all of which came in the second half.
Running the point, Dorsey notched his third-best passing output of the season with a team-leading eight assists.
With the victory, Mid-America Christian completed one of its toughest stretches of the season, picking up four wins over five ranked opponents since knocking off No. 10 John Brown 73-59 back on Jan. 4. MACU followed it up with a 73-58 win at No. 9 Wayland Baptist on Jan. 9 and a 93-82 victory at No. 19 Texas Wesleyan on Thursday before finishing off No. 22 Southwestern Assemblies of God.
Mid-America Christian will close out the first half of Sooner Athletic Conference play next week with a 7:45 p.m. tip-off on Thursday, Jan. 23 against Southwestern Christian inside the Gaulke Activity Center before heading to Oklahoma City on Saturday, Jan. 25 for a 3:45 p.m. tip.
