KANSAS CITY, Mo. – After Mid-America Christian men's basketball head coach Josh Gamblin captured his 100th career victory in a crucial 73-59 victory over No. 10 John Brown last week, the Evangels were the NAIA selection for the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Team of the Week for the first time in program history on Tuesday.
Mid-America Christian (13-0, 4-0 Sooner Athletic Conference) opened the new year in-style, defeating Bacone College 126-72 at the Palmer Center in Muskogee, Okla. on Thursday, Jan. 2. The Evangels recorded an NAIA era record 60 rebounds in the win as the Evangels held the Braves to just two offensive rebounds in the contest.
Senior guard/forward Ashford Golden led MACU with his second straight 30-plus point game, tallying 32 points on 12-of-18 from the field and 5-for-9 from the three-point arc while junior guard Tony Dorsey dished out 12 assists, the most in a single game since Malcolm Mann's 13-assist game against Bacone College on Jan. 28, 2016.
The Evangels followed it up with a win over an NAIA Top 25 opponent on Saturday, Jan. 4 inside the Gaulke Activity Center as MACU put together a dominant defensive performance against No. 10 John Brown to come away with the 73-59 victory. The Evangels defense set the tone in the first half, limiting the Golden Eagles to just 22 points on 31 percent shooting and held one of the top three-point shooting teams in the country to just 2-for-12 (16.7 percent) from beyond the arc.
Senior guard D'von Moore led the Evangels with 20 points on 6-for-10 from the floor, including 4-for-8 from the three-point arc and 4-for-4 from the foul line to go along with a team-high four assists. Golden provided a major spark both offensively and defensively, tallying 11 points on 3-of-8 shooting and 4-for-5 from the free throw line to go along with a career-high four blocked shots.
It was the Evangels second win over an NAIA Top 25 team this season after handing then No. 11 and current No. 7 LSU Shreveport 103-89 its only loss so far on the season on Nov. 7 at the Gaulke Activity Center.
Picking up his 100th win, fifth year head coach Josh Gamblin has impressively amassed those 100 wins in just 151 contests for a .662 win percentage. Gamblin has recorded 20 or more wins in three of his first four seasons on top of winning the NAIA National Championship over Georgetown (Ky.) on Mar. 22, 2016 in his first season with the Evangels.
Mid-America Christian is currently preparing for one of its most challenging road contests of the season as the Evangels will head to Plainview, Texas on Thursday to take on No. 9 Wayland Baptist at 7:45 p.m. before heading to Goodwell, Okla. for a 3:45 p.m. matchup with Oklahoma Panhandle State on Saturday.
