OKLAHOMA CITY – The top-seed and No. 1 ranked Mid-America Christian men's basketball team will advance to the Sooner Athletic Conference Semifinals after defeating No. 8 seed Southwestern Christian 89-82 on Tuesday night.
Mid-America Christian (30-1) held off Southwestern Christian (14-15) to win the program's first ever SAC Tournament game played inside the Gaulke Activity Center. Since the Evangels have already locked up a spot in the NAIA National Tournament, the Evangels finished with a perfect 17-0 record at home this season. It is MACU's best home record since posting a 14-1 mark inside Gaulke during the 2003-04 season.
The milestone win also set the Evangels first 30-win season since that same 2003-04 campaign, where MACU finished 30-7 and won the NCCAA Division II National Championship.
The SAC Semifinal and Championship games will take place at the Hutcherson Center in Plainview, Texas from March 6-7, as the Evangels will open the men's side against the No. 4 seed and nationally 13th-ranked Southwestern Assemblies of God on Friday.
Senior guard Ashford Golden and junior guard Terrance Jones led the Evangels to victory in the SAC Quarterfinal against the Eagles, as each scored 22 points. Golden shot 6-for-11 from the field, 2-for-4 from three and 8-for-10 from the free throw line to go along with a team-high eight rebounds. Jones pitched his 22 off the bench, shooting 9-for-14 to go with six rebounds.
The two teams were trapped in a stalemate for seven minutes as neither team could grab more than a two-point lead.
Golden got the Evangels offense going with a three-point splash from the left corner to give MACU the lead at 11-10 with 13:18 to go. The bucket started a string of nine straight as Tony Dorsey's layup with 11:56 to go pushed the MACU lead out to 17-10.
The Eagles kept it to within five with just under eight minutes to go, but MACU extended its advantage to double-digits on Dominick Ford's corner three off a beautiful dish by Marvin Lowe, followed by two D'von Moore free throws to make it a 27-17 game with 6:29 left.
A pair of SCU threes closed the gap to four, but the Evangels stung back with 10 straight. Damarius Brooks started off the run with a layup, followed by yet another Ford three and back-to-back Jones layups, the last of which a three-point play to stretch the MACU advantage out to 37-23 with 2:10 to go.
Southwestern Christian fought back to bring it down to single digits, but Lowe pushed it back out to 11 when he grabbed Ford's missed three out of the air and put it back in right at the buzzer to send MACU into the half with a 42-31 edge.
Mid-America Christian knocked down 16-for-31 (51.6 percent) from the field in the first half despite shooting just 4-for-11 (36.4 percent) from three while knocking down 6-for-8 (75 percent) from the free throw line. The Evangels held Southwestern Christian to only 10-for-32 (31.3 percent) shooting and 4-for-13 (30.8 percent) from three while also outrebounding SCU 23-14.
Neither team could capture the early momentum in the second half until a Lowe layup with 14:42 remaining started a 7-1 Evangels run as Lowe and Jones combined to score all seven of the MACU points to take a 60-46 lead with 12:05 to go.
With 10:09 left, Jones made a layup to give the Evangels their largest lead of the game at 66-51 before the Eagles came screeching back.
Southwestern Christian rattled off 13 of the next 15 points as a Ron Washington hoop-and-harm closed the gap to 68-64 with 6:04 on the clock.
A pull-up jumper by Dorsey followed by two Golden free throws helped MACU extend the edge back out to eight as the Evangels thwarted SCU by not allowing the lead to drop below five the rest of the way.
With under a minute left, Jones came up with a huge score with 53 seconds left to stretch MACU's lead to 85-76 while Golden knocked down four clutch free throws following an SCU score to give the Evangels an 89-78 advantage with 15 seconds on the clock.
The Eagles scored a couple of late buckets, but it was too little, too late as MACU sealed the 89-82 win.
Mid-America Christian once again shot well from the field in the second half, knocking down 17-for-32 (53.1 percent) despite shooting only 2-for-10 (20 percent) from three. Southwestern Christian fared no better from range, making only 3-for-12 (25 percent) in the second half while shooting 19-for-39 (48.7 percent) from the field.
Lowe put together one of his finest all-around games in an Evangels uniform, scoring 16 points on 7-for-8 from the field and ripped down eight rebounds while dishing out a team-best seven assists.
Dorsey tallied 10 points on 5-for-10 shooting with four assists while Ford rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points on 3-of-5 from the three-point arc.
In another matchup of NAIA powerhouses, No. 1 Mid-America Christian and No. 13 Southwestern Assemblies of God will tip-off at 6 p.m. on Friday in the SAC Semifinal.
