BETHANY, Okla. – Junior forward Terrance Jones scored a career-high 25 points and nearly broke the program's NAIA era free throw record, but the No. 3 Mid-America Christian men's basketball team couldn't quite overcome its offensive struggles as the Evangels dropped a heartbreaker in overtime at Southwestern Christian by a score of 80-77 on Monday night inside Pickens-Springer Gymnasium.

 
STAT LEADERS

• Terrance Jones – 25 PTS, 14-20 FT, 6 REB
• Omar Boone – 10 PTS, 5 REB, 4 AST
• Jasiah Lewis – 10 PTS, 3-6 3FG

 

GAME SUMMARY

• 1^st Half
  • Mid-America Christian opened the first half on-fire by scoring the first 11 points, starting the run with a Derrick Magiya layup followed by a trio of three-point baskets from Dominick Ford and back-to-back splashes from Jasiah Lewis.
  • After the Eagles knocked down a pair of threes to cut the MACU lead to five, Lewis knocked down another three from the right side, starting a string of seven unanswered with buckets by Terrance Jones and Marvin Lowe pushing the edge back to 18-6 with 12:54 to go.
  • Southwestern Christian went on a big run midway through the second half, stringing together 13 straight over a 2:37 stretch to take its first lead of the contest at 19-18 with 10:06 remaining.
  • The Evangels answered right back as Omar Boone buried a three from the right wing out of a timeout as another Magiya lay-in and a pair of Jones free throws pushed the MACU advantage to 25-19 with 5:14 left.
  • SCU trimmed the MACU edge down two on a pair of occasions over the final five minutes, but the Evangels held on to the lead as two more Jones free throws with 42 seconds on the clock pushed MACU into the halftime break with a 32-28 advantage.
• 2^nd Half
  • Southwestern Christian quickly tied the game in the early portions of the second half on pair of threes by Jordan Williams and Khristien White in-between a pair of Jones free throws to make it 40-all with 15:20 to go.
  • The two teams exchanged leads over the next three minutes before another Jones free throw tied it at 46, but SCU came back with seven unanswered to take a seven-point edge at 53-46 with 10:40 on the clock.
  • The Eagles took their largest lead of the game at 57-49 with 8:47 left before the Evangels came storming back. MACU tallied 11 of the next 12 points off a Slaughter tip-in, a Dominick Ford free throw, a Damarius Brooks putback lay-in and capped off by a pair of threes from Ford and Omar Boone to give the Evangels the 60-58 edge with 5:37 remaining.
  • Ford extended the MACU advantage to four with a pair of free throws to bring it to 67-63, but Southwestern Christian responded with another seven unanswered run to take a 70-67 lead with 1:27 to go.
  • Following a MACU timeout, Slaughter buried a long three from the left wing off a Boone dish to tie the score at 70. The Evangels were able to get a pair of defensive stops in the final minute, but MACU was unable to put away the game-winner as the ball got away from Ford on the final possession and rushed a shot at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.
• Overtime
  • The Evangels struggled to get a score through the first two minutes of extra time until Jones had a strong take down the right side and putback his missed layup as well as drew the foul, converting a three-point play to trim the SCU edge to 74-73 with 2:56 left.
  • Leading by three with just over a minute remaining, SCU's Charles Dickson converted a big bucket with 1:10 to go to push the Eagles' lead to 80-75, forcing MACU to call a timeout.
  • After Jones knocked down a free throw with 27 seconds left, the Evangels got new life when they were able to get the offensive rebound off Jones' miss on the second attempt. However, the Evangels were unable to capitalize as SCU came up with the defensive rebound on Lewis' missed three to eventually come away with the 80-77 win.

 

GAME NOTES

• Mid-America Christian continued to struggle on the offensive end, knocking down just 23-for-68 (33.8 percent) from the field and 10-for-28 (35.7 percent) from three while also converting 21-of-31 (67.7 percent) from the foul line. SCU finished the game shooting 30-for-66 (45.5 percent), including 11-of-31 (35.5 percent) from beyond the arc and knocking down 9-of-14 (64.3 percent) from the charity stripe.
• Terrance Jones tied Semar Farris for the second-most made free throws in a single game during the NAIA era with 14 makes while his 20 attempts broke Farris' record set against Northwood (Texas) on Jan. 2, 2014.
• Jones' career-best 25-point scoring effort topped his previous 24-point career-high effort set in last year's 80-61 Senior Night home win over Central Christian on Feb. 27.
• MACU lost back-to-back games for the first time in nearly two years. The last time the Evangels dropped consecutive regular season games came in a 97-81 loss at Oklahoma City on Jan. 29, 2019 before falling 82-76 to Texas Wesleyan at the Gaulke Activity Center on Jan. 31, 2019.

 

NEXT UP

• Mid-America Christian will look to try to get back on-track Thursday night as the Evangels will head to McPherson, Kansas to take on Central Christian. The game is slated for a 7:45 p.m. tip-off.