WAXAHACHIE, Texas – With ice in his veins, Tony Dorsey knocked down the two biggest free throws of his career. Trailing by one with 0.5 seconds left, the junior guard was fouled going up for the potential game-winning three-point shot and buried the first two attempts to secure No. 2 Mid-America Christian's biggest road win of the season at No. 15 Southwestern Assemblies of God, 80-79 on Thursday night.

Facing the third-rated team in the Sooner Athletic Conference, it was a pivotal win for Mid-America Christian (24-1, 14-1 SAC) as the Evangels maintained its one-game lead over No. 9 John Brown for the league lead while getting some breathing room at three games from Southwestern Assemblies of God (19-4, 11-4 SAC), who fell into a tie for third with No. 20 Texas Wesleyan.

The Evangels offensively were balanced across the board with six players scoring at least eight points, led by junior reserve guard Terrance Jones with 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the field, 2-for-5 from three while ripping down a team-high nine rebounds and dished out four assists.

MACU played some strong defense in the early going, only allowing three Lions points through the first 3:33 as an Ashford Golden fade away three-pointer from the left wing with 16:22 to go gave the Evangels an early 5-3 edge.

The Lions were able to find an offensive rhythm over the next few minutes, springing an 8-2 run off a Darian Davis layup while SAGU's big Kentton Williams drained a long three from the left side to give the Lions their largest lead of the game at 11-7 with 14:21 to go.

Golden went shot-for-shot with the Lions, draining a three from the top of the key on the ensuing possession to cut the deficit to one. The Evangels pulled back in-front moments later when Dorsey snagged a steal out of the air on a SAGU player trying to save an errant pass, finding Jones in the left corner on the fastbreak for a triple to make it 13-11 with 13:52 left.

SAGU tied it on a Davis layup on the next possession, but MACU rattled off seven unanswered on a pair of layups by Jones and Carlos Slaughter followed by a Damarius Brooks three to bring the score to 20-13 with 10:38 remaining.

The Lions were able to keep it to within a couple of possessions over the next three minutes, but Mid-America Christian found some breathing room with seven minutes left. Off an offensive board, Jones found D'von Moore in the left corner and he sank a step-back fade away three to start an 8-0 run.

Jones added a jumper on the run and Dominick Ford dropped a triple from the left corner to give MACU its largest lead of the half at 34-21 with 5:42 left.

Southwestern Assemblies of God was able to chip away at the MACU advantage, shrinking it down to six before Brooks was able to knock down a tightly contested pull-up jumper from the right side with 37 seconds left, giving MACU the 39-31 edge at the halftime break.

Both defenses played tough in the first half, but the Evangels were able to hold a slight shooting edge on the Lions in the first 20 minutes of action. MACU finished the half by going 14-for-38 (36.9 percent) from the field and 8-for-22 (36.4 percent) from three, but were able to hold the Lions to just 11-of-34 (32.4 percent) shooting and 5-for-18 (27.8 percent) from beyond the arc.

Dorsey notched a pair of quick scores to open the second half on a tough pull-up jumper and a long three-pointer from the left wing in the first 1:32 to give MACU a 44-33 edge, but the Lions continued to hang around.

SAGU closed the gap to seven with 16:17 to go before the Evangels put together another quick surge, scoring seven of the next eight points to build their largest lead of the half on a Golden steal and fastbreak dunk, setting the score to 53-40 with 14:42 on the clock.

The Evangels wouldn't lead by less than three scores until the Lions strung together five unanswered, finished off on a pair of free throws by Nykolas Mason to close the gap to 66-61 with 6:36 remaining.

A Marvin Lowe free throw and then a layup on the ensuing possession pushed the MACU edge back out to six, but the Lions rattled off six unanswered as two more Mason free throws locked the game up at 69-all with just 4:27 left to play.

Jones came up with a big play on the following possession to stop the run as Lowe found him in the post and he was able to get the hoop and the harm to reclaim a 72-69 edge for MACU.

The Evangels extended their advantage to five twice just a few minutes later when Jones found Golden on a backdoor cut and after another Mason jumper, Dorsey hit a big fade away jumper from the left side to bring the score to 78-73 with 1:38 to go.

SAGU's Davis cut the Evangels' edge two on the ensuing possession on a three from the left wing and Mason knocked down one of two free moments later to make it a 78-77 game with 46 seconds left.

Southwestern Assemblies of God was able to take advantage of some crucial Evangels turnovers to get back in it, but it appeared MACU came up with a big stop when SAGU's Mitchell McMullen into committed a double dribble with 17 seconds left as Dorsey was fouled on the following in-bound pass.

However, Dorsey missed a crucial front end of a one-and-one and SAGU's Mason made a phenomenal spin move and layup with seven seconds left to put the Lions in-front at 79-78.

On the following in-bound pass, Dorsey was able to dribble around multiple Lions defenders and with under a second remaining, pulled up on a 24-foot three from the top of the key, but was fouled in the act, setting up the game-winning foul shots.

Mid-America Christian was more efficient on the offensive end in the second half, knocking down 15-for-31 (48.4 percent) from the field and 3-for-7 (42.9 percent) from three while going 8-for-11 (72.7 percent from the charity stripe. However, MACU struggled to find an answer for a red-hot shooting Mason and SAGU as a whole, as the Lions fired 17-for-29 (58.6 percent) from the field, but only 1-for-7 (14.3 percent) from three. Free throw shooting kept SAGU in the ball game as the Lions were able to convert 13-for-17 (76.5 percent) in the final 20 minutes of action.

Golden was one of three Evangels to break double-figures with 16 points on 7-of-13 from the field and 2-for-4 from beyond the arc to go with six boards and a pair of steals while Dorsey rounded out the double-digit contributors with 11 points.

Along with Jones, Lowe dished out a team-high four assists while Calon Woodson made his impact felt on the defensive end with a team-best three steals.

With the victory, the Evangels improved their record to 6-1 against opponents ranked in the NAIA Top 25.

Mid-America Christian will have an opportunity add another Top 25 victory on Saturday when the Evangels host No. 20 Texas Wesleyan. Tip-off is slated for 3:45 p.m. inside the Gaulke Activity Center.