OKLAHOMA CITY – For the second time in program history, the No. 1 Mid-America Christian men's basketball team won the Sooner Athletic Conference Championship on Thursday, Feb. 27 during Senior Night inside the Gaulke Activity Center with an 80-61 victory over Central Christian.
Mid-America Christian (28-1, 18-1 SAC) needed just a win to earn at least a share of the SAC title, but a victory on-top of a No. 9 John Brown loss at No. 23 Texas Wesleyan secured the outright league championship for the Evangels with just one game to go in the regular season.
Central Christian (12-15, 5-14 SAC) hung around with the Evangels, keeping it to within a four-point game with 8:40 left, but MACU turned on the after burners, outscoring the Tigers 24-9 down the stretch to pull away with the 19-point victory.
Junior guard Terrance Jones led MACU with a double-double, scoring 24 points on 8-for-11 from the field and 7-of-7 from the free throw line to go with a team-high 10 rebounds.
The Evangels blitzed the Tigers right out of the gate, as Torrey Young opened the scoring with a beautiful spin move in the low post while Ashford Golden dropped back-to-back long three-point bombs to give MACU the early 8-0 lead through the first 1:18.
The Tigers rattled off eight of the next 10 over a three minute stretch to close the gap to two, but the Evangels fired back with a 9-2 run of their own, capped off on a D'von Moore three that rattled in from the right wing to extend the edge to 19-10 with 14:16 to go.
A Central Christian three by Andrew Epps and a jumper by Darrell Bryan shrank the MACU lead down to four, but Mid-America Christian wouldn't allow the Tigers to climb any closer.
Leading by seven with 5:30 remaining in the half, Jones helped the Evangels push the advantage out to double-figures by getting the hoop and the harm to ignite a 10-4 run, finishing it off by beating his defender down the left baseline and finger-rolling a layup in with 3:16 remaining to make it a 40-27 game.
However, the Evangels went cold from the field in the final three minutes, scoring just one point as Central Christian outscored MACU 10-1 down the stretch to trim the Evangels lead to 41-37 at the break.
Mid-America Christian shot 15-for-33 (45.5 percent) from the field and 7-for-9 (77.8 percent) from the charity stripe in the first 20 minutes of action, but shot below its season average from beyond the arc, converting just 4-for-12 (33.3 percent). Central Christian shot 15-for-36 (41.7 percent) from the field and 5-for-15 (33.3 percent) from three, but were able to take advantage of second chances by outrebounding MACU 23-19 with a 6-2 edge on offensive rebounds.
Both teams were stone cold to start the second half as a nice Cedric Wright dish for a Calon Woodson layup at the 19:04 mark was the only score for either team through the first 3:40 until CCC's Andy Pompa knocked down a three to trim MACU's advantage to 43-40.
Jones and Pompa traded three-pointers on consecutive possessions before a Bryant free throw with 14:51 on the clock cut the Tigers deficit to just 46-44.
The Evangels thwarted the run by attacking the paint over the next five minutes, getting all of their points from inside the rectangle or from the free throw line during a 10-3 spurt as Tony Dorsey's fastbreak layup off a Marvin Lowe outlet pass with 9:55 to go pushed the Evangels' edge to 56-47.
Five unanswered by the Tigers shrank the MACU lead down to 56-52 with 8:40 remaining, but a strong take by Jones down the right lane resulted in a three-point play and Dorsey drilled a pull-up three from the right wing on the ensuing possession to bring the score to 62-52 with 7:50 left.
An Epps free throw with 6:59 on the clock would be the last time CCC would bring the lead below double-digits as the Evangels tallied five straight over the next 1:19 to extend the edge back out to 14.
Central Christian chipped its deficit down to 10 at 71-61 with 3:37 to go, but that would be the Tigers final score of the game as the Evangels finished with nine unanswered off a pair of Wright buckets as well as another Jones three-point play and layup to seal the 80-61 win.
Mid-America Christian was more efficient on the offensive end in the second half, scoring on 14-of-27 (51.9 percent) of its shots and 9-for-12 (75 percent) from the free throw line, despite the continued struggles from three by going 2-for-12 (16.7 percent).
Defensively, MACU held the Tigers to just 7-for-28 (25 percent) shooting in the second half and 4-for-17 (23.5 percent) from the three-point arc while outrebounding CCC 21-17.
Five Evangels broke into double-figures as Moore tallied 13 points despite a slugging shooting night by converting on 8-for-10 from the foul line to go with a pair of assists.
After missing the last 11 games, Wright had a stellar showing in his return to the lineup, scoring 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting along with two assists in just 19 minutes of work.
Golden scored 10 points and ripped down eight rebounds in his final regular season game in the Gaulke Activity Center while Dorsey rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting and 2-for-4 from three.
Lowe provided a spark off the Evangels bench with one of his best defensive performances of the season, turning in a team-high three assists and three steals.
With the win, Mid-America Christian secured its second SAC regular season title, the first since MACU went 14-4 during the 2014-15 conference season to finish a game ahead of Wayland Baptist and Oklahoma City.
The victory also secured MACU's 28th win of the season, tying the program's NAIA era single season wins record with the 2015-16 squad that finished 28-9 to win its first ever NAIA National Championship.
Before the start of the contest, the Evangels honored its five graduating seniors; Ashford Golden, D'von Moore, Calon Woodson, Cedric Wright and Torrey Young.
Mid-America Christian will have the opportunity to surpass it on Saturday, Feb. 29 as the Evangels will wrap up the regular season at Langston. Tip-off is slated for 3:45 p.m. inside the C.F. Gayles Fieldhouse.
