OKLAHOMA CITY – Senior guard/forward Ashford Golden scored 37 points and knocked down the third-most threes in a single game in the NAIA era to lead the No. 2 Mid-America Christian men's basketball team to a 99-92 victory over crosstown rival Oklahoma City on Thursday night inside the Gaulke Activity Center.

Golden shot lights out from the floor, going 11-for-18 from the field and 8-for-11 from the three-point arc, just one shy of tying Semar Farris and Olajuwan Gardner for the most threes made in a single game since the 2007-08 season. The Oklahoma City native also knocked down 7-for-7 from the foul line to go with a team-high eight rebounds and two steals.

Mid-America Christian (26-1, 16-1 Sooner Athletic Conference) struggled out of the gate, as Oklahoma City (14-13, 6-11 SAC) outscored MACU 7-0 through the first 3:45.

Golden buried a three from the left wing to ignite the Evangels as another Golden three and a Tony Dorsey layup quickly closed the gap to 9-8 with 15:09 to go.

The Evangels took their first lead with 13:24 remaining when Terrance Jones was Johnny on the spot, catching a deflected pass in the middle of the paint and laid it in to make it a 13-12 Evangels advantage.

The lead changed hands four more times before Jones put the MACU in-front for the remainder of the half with a tough running jumper from the left side with 11:05 on the clock, setting the score to 18-17.

Oklahoma City kept it close over the next three minutes as a Darrion Willies three cut the MACU edge to 26-23, but Golden was a one-man wrecking crew, burying a pair of threes and knocked down a midrange jumper over a 1:03 stretch to build the Evangels lead to 34-23 with 6:50 left.

MACU stretched its lead to as much as 12 on a Damarius Brooks three that rattled in from the left wing with 10 seconds left, but Oklahoma City's Trae Bryant buried a three at the buzzer from the right wing to trim the Eagles deficit to 50-41 at the break.

The two teams shot fairly evenly from the field in the first half as MACU knocked down 18-for-37 (48.6 percent) while OCU converted on 15-for-31 (48.4 percent) of its shots, but the biggest difference came from the three-point arc as the Evangels made 10-for-19 (52.6 percent) while the Stars finished 4-for-14 (28.6 percent).

Early in the second half, the Evangels pushed its edge out to 11 as OCU's Rashaun Coleman and MACU's Dominick Ford traded three-pointers after a Dorsey jumper to make it 55-44 with 18:44 remaining.

Oklahoma City rattled off six unanswered to bring the MACU lead down to five, but Golden once again rattled off five straight of his own to push the lead back to double-digits at 60-50 with 15:04 to go.

The Evangels led by no less than three possessions over the next few minutes and even stretched their lead to as much as 13 on a tough Marvin Lowe layup with 12:51 left to bring the score to 67-54.

The Stars gained the momentum by putting together a 20-6 run over the next five minutes, taking the lead on a Coleman free throw with 8:07 remaining to make it a 74-73.

On the ensuing possession, Lowe gave MACU the lead back with a strong layup from the right side, finishing off the three-point play with 7:42 to go.

The Evangels never conceded the lead the rest of the way as MACU slowly pulled away for the 99-92 win.

Mid-America Christian shot 15-for-28 (53.6 percent) from the floor in the second half and 5-of-11 (45.5 percent) from the three-point arc while Oklahoma City knocked down 18-for-30 (60 percent) and made 6-for-14 (42.9 percent) from beyond the arc.

Five Evangels broke into double-figures as Jones scored 14 points on 6-or-9 shooting with five assists and Ford finished with 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting and knocked down 3-for-3 from the three-point arc to go with six rebounds.

Lowe added 12 points on 5-of-6 from the field and Dorsey rounded out all double-digit scorers with 10 points and six assists.

With the victory, the Evangels have officially locked up one of the top two seeds in the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament with three games left in the regular season.

Mid-America Christian will head to Bethany, Okla. on Saturday as the Evangels will take on a Brandon Rollins led Southwestern Christian. Tip-off is slated for 3:45 p.m. inside Pickens-Springer Gymnasium.