OKLAHOMA CITY – The No. 2 Mid-America Christian men's basketball team managed to hold off a major rally by No. 20 Texas Wesleyan with some clutch shots down the stretch to come away with a 94-89 victory at the Gaulke Activity Center on Saturday.
With the win, Mid-America Christian (25-1, 15-1 Sooner Athletic Conference) improved its season record to 7-1 against opponents ranked in the NAIA Top 25, just two days removed from a thrilling 80-79 win at No. 15 Southwestern Assemblies of God on Thursday night.
More importantly, the Evangels maintained their one-game lead over No. 9 John Brown (23-3, 14-2 SAC) for the league lead with just four games left in the regular season.
Senior guard/forward Ashford Golden led the Evangels with 26 points, tying his third-highest scoring output of the season on 8-of-15 shooting and a blazing 6-for-7 from three and 4-for-4 from the foul line to go with six rebounds. Junior guard Tony Dorsey pitched in a season-high 21 points on 7-of-13 from the field, 3-for-5 from beyond the arc and 4-for-4 from the foul line to go with four assists.
In the first half, Texas Wesleyan jumped out to a quick 5-0 advantage before the Evangels stormed back by rattling off 12 unanswered. Golden scored seven of the 12 points during the run, capping it off on a pair of free throws with 16:04 remaining to make it a 12-5 MACU lead.
The Rams fought their way back to take a two-point edge at 22-20 on Akeem White's fastbreak layup with 12:08 left, prompting MACU Head Coach Josh Gamblin to call a timeout.
A Terrance Jones layup out of the break tied the game back up, but Texas Wesleyan would take its largest lead a few minutes later when Sam Lorenzen drained a three from the corner following a Lamont Simmons free throw to bring the score to 24-20 with 8:42 remaining.
TWU maintained a four-point edge until 6:47 left when Jones picked off pass from the top of the key and went coast-to-coast for the fastbreak layup to cut the deficit to two at 27-25.
After forcing a Rams turnover, Jones gave MACU the lead on the following possession by draining a three from the left wing off a Marvin Lowe hand-off to give the Evangels the 28-27 edge with 6:19 left.
Following a White layup with 5:07 left that cut the MACU lead back down to one, the Evangels gained some breathing room on a pair of Golden scores and a Dominick Ford layup to make it a 36-29 MACU advantage with 3:35 remaining until half.
TWU's Joe Cook-Green knocked down one of two free throws with just over two minutes left to cut the Rams deficit to 42-35, but the Evangels scored the final seven points of the half. MACU went into the locker room with all of the momentum when Carlos Slaughter came down with the defensive rebound with four seconds left and kicked it over to D'von Moore, who hurled a three-quarters court shot that splashed through at the buzzer to send the Evangels into the break with a 49-35 lead.
Mid-America Christian was firing on all cylinders on the offensive end in the first half, shooting 17-for-33 (51.5 percent) overall and 8-of-15 (53.3 percent) from the three-point arc while also converting 7-for-7 from the charity stripe.
The Evangels quickly pushed their lead out to 20 right away in the second half as a pair of Lowe layups and a Dorsey score brought the MACU advantage to 55-35 just 1:32 in, but Texas Wesleyan clawed its way back.
With MACU leading by 19 with 17:22 to go, the Rams rattled off nine unanswered, finished off on a Peyton Sallee three at the 16:04 mark to make it a 57-47 game.
Ford snapped the skid with a three-point splash from the right wing off a Slaughter kick-out from the free throw line and Slaughter added a free throw with 14:23 left to bring the MACU advantage to 61-47.
The Evangels controlled at least a three-possession lead over the next seven minutes as a Moore triple from the right corner off a Jones fastbreak pass brought the score to 74-62.
However, the Rams surged with seven unanswered before a Slaughter layup with 7:12 remaining briefly stopped the run at 76-69.
Texas Wesleyan slowly whittled the MACU advantage down to two twice, the first coming on a White layup with 3:02 to go to make it 82-80, but Golden splashed a three with 2:16 on the clock to extend the lead back to five.
The Rams brought it back down to two again on a Marshall Calvin floating jumper that banked in off the glass and drew the foul, cutting the MACU lead to 86-84 with 1:16 left. Calvin missed the opportunity to cut it to one as the Evangels came down with the defensive rebound.
With the shot clock winding down, Dorsey was clutch once again, burying a wide open three from the right wing off a Jones pass on the drive to once again make it a five-point game at 89-84 with 41 seconds remaining.
Over the next 30 seconds, the Evangels were able to knock down some crucial free throws to push the lead out to eight at 92-84 with 13 seconds left, but the Rams were able to make things interesting in the final 10 seconds.
Calvin knocked down a layup with seven seconds left and then TWU forced MACU into committing a turnover on the in-bound pass. The Rams' Joe Cook-Green splashed a three from the left wing with two seconds left to bring the score to 92-89.
However, TWU would not be able to force another Evangels turnover as Dorsey caught the in-bound, was immediately fouled and buried two free throws with a second left to seal the 94-89 victory.
Mid-America Christian finished the game by shooting 31-for-61 (50.8 percent) from the field and 14-of-28 (50 percent) from beyond the arc while efficiently knocking down 18-for-21 (85.7 percent) from the foul line.
Slaughter was the only other Evangel to join Golden and Dorsey in double-figures with 12 points on 5-for-8 shooting with five rebounds, but MACU's scoring was balanced across the board with six players scoring at least eight points. Jones pitched in eight points off the bench with a team-leading eight rebounds and five assists.
Mid-America Christian will return home on Thursday, Feb. 20 as the Evangels will host crosstown rival Oklahoma City. Tip-off is slated for 7:45 p.m. inside the Gaulke Activity Center.
