PLAINVIEW, Texas – The Mid-America Christian men's basketball team made some strong halftime adjustments, overcoming a six-point halftime deficit to top No. 9 Wayland Baptist 73-58 on Thursday night at the Hutcherson Center.
It was the second win against a team ranked in the NAIA top 10 within the last five days for Mid-America Christian (14-0, 5-0 Sooner Athletic Conference) after topping No. 10 John Brown 73-59 last Saturday. It was also the Evangels' first win at Wayland Baptist (8-5, 2-3 SAC) since the 2011-12 season when MACU came away with an 83-81 victory.
The Evangels got some strong contributions off the bench, as Terrance Jones notched a team-high 14 points on 4-of-10 shooting and 6-of-8 from the foul line to go with seven rebounds and two steals while D'von Moore also chipped in 14 on 5-for-7 shooting, including 4-of-6 from three-point range.
Both offenses struggled mightily against the defenses in the early going as the two teams played to a 15-all draw following a pair of Dominick Ford free throws with 7:20 left in the first half. Neither team led by more than four during the first 12:40 stretch.
Wayland Baptist strung together the first big run following a pair of JJ Culver free throws, scoring 11 of the next 13 points to take its largest lead at 26-17 with 4:16 left until the break.
MACU couldn't get much of an offensive flow going in the final four minutes as the Evangels could only whittle the Pioneers lead to six at 29-23 before the half. It appeared the Pioneers were going to take an eight-point advantage into the break after Tre Fillmore was able to steal the ball at the top of the key from Tony Dorsey, but the Evangels caught a break when he was unable make his fastbreak layup attempt before time expired.
Being held to its lowest halftime scoring output of the season, the Evangels shot just 30.4 percent (7-for-23) from the floor and 12.5 percent (1-for-8) from the three-point arc while committing 16 turnovers in the process.
Fortunately, MACU was almost just as stout on the defensive end as well, limiting the Pioneers to just 31.1 percent (10-for-32) shooting and 18.2 percent (2-for-11) from the three-point arc.
No strangers to trailing at the break, the Evangels made some strong halftime adjustments as an Ashford Golden three-pointer on MACU's first possession of the second half started an 8-2 run, capped off on a Calon Woodson jumper in the paint to tie the score at 31 just 2:44 in.
Wayland Baptist quickly reclaimed the advantage with six unanswered, but the Evangels countered once again with an 11-0 run of their own.
A Cedric Wright three from the top of the key tied the game at 37-all and a long Moore triple from the left wing on the ensuing possession gave MACU its first lead since the 17:18 mark of the first half. Ford finished off the string of 11 unanswered with a pair of free throws with 12:10 remaining to raise the MACU edge to 42-37.
The Pioneers once again battled back over the next three minutes, as a Tre Fillmore fastbreak layup put WBU back in-front 48-47 with 9:32 remaining.
However, the Evangels once again swung back with a string of 10 unanswered, ignited by a Golden layup off a nice baseline feed by Wright and Jones finished off the streak with a strong take to the basket, extending the MACU edge to 57-48 with 5:20 to go.
The Pioneers briefly closed the gap to six following a Fillmore three-pointer, but the Evangels quickly captured their first double-digit lead of the ballgame following a Moore triple and a Tony Dorsey jumper in the paint to set the score to 62-51 with 3:57 remaining.
The stout MACU defense held the Pioneers to just seven points over the final 5:06, including being held scoreless in the last 1:35 as the Evangels pulled away to complete the 73-58 win.
Mid-America Christian outscored Wayland Baptist 50-29 in the second half, shooting 50 percent from the floor, 53.9 percent from the three-point arc and converted on 15-of-17 free throws (88.2 percent) from the foul line in the final 20 minutes of regulation.
Defensively, the Evangels held the Pioneers to just 39.3 percent shooting, including 3-for-18 (16.7 percent) from the three-point arc. MACU finished the game by shooting a 41.2 percent clip from the field, 38.1 percent from three and knocked down 79.3 percent of its free throw attempts. The Evangels dominated on the glass, outrebounding the Pioneers by a 42-31 margin.
MACU's defense strongly challenged Culver, the NAIA's leading scorer, limiting the senior guard to just 11 points on 2-of-10 shooting and 1-for-5 from three with six of his 11 points coming from the foul line.
Despite facing some early foul trouble, Golden finished with 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting to go along with eight rebounds and two blocked shots.
Wright recorded his first double-double with MACU, tallying 11 points and 10 rebounds to go along with a team-high three assists and three steals. Ford finished just a point shy of a double-double with nine points and 10 boards.
Mid-America Christian will be back in-action on Saturday, Jan. 11 as the Evangels head to Goodwell, Okla. for a 3:45 p.m. matchup against Oklahoma Panhandle State.
