SHAWNEE, Okla. – The No. 3 Mid-America Christian men's basketball team was able to contend with one of the top teams in NCAA Division II last season, but were unable to find an offensive rhythm in the second half as the Evangels dropped an exhibition contest at Oklahoma Baptist 82-57 at Noble Complex on Saturday.

While MACU was able to hang with the Bison, who qualified for the NCAA Tournament last season for 30 minutes, the Evangels struggled to slow down the red-hot three-point shooting by OBU in the second half.

 

TOP PERFORMERS

• Marvin Lowe – 11 PTS, 5-10 FG, 4 REB
• Malik Malone – 10 PTS, 4-7 FG, 2-3 3FG
• Derrick Magiya – 7 PTS, 3-3 FG, 3 REB, 1 STL

 

GAME SUMMARY

• 1^st Half
  • Mid-America Christian and Oklahoma Baptist went back and forth in the early going as five early points from Marvin Lowe led to MACU tying the game at 5-5 before Oklahoma Baptist gained some breathing room with a five unanswered run to make it 10-5 with 16:25 to go.
  • A pair of scores from Malik Malone and a pair of Jasiah Lewis free throws locked the game up at 12, but another run by the Bison pushed the OBU lead back out to 19-12 with 12:47 on the clock.
  • A Lowe jumper with 8:50 remaining cut the deficit to 21-19, but the Bison once again utilized a strong 13-4 run to take their largest lead of the half, 34-23 at the 5:28 mark.
  • A Tarrence Gaines layup and Toni Kumanovic triple helped trim the deficit to 38-32 with 2:52 to go, but OBU closed out the half with a 5-1 run to take a 43-33 advantage into the halftime break.
• 2^nd Half
  • The Evangels were held scoreless through the first 4:45 before a Derrick Magiya layup snapped an OBU 7-0 run to bring the score to 50-35.
  • MACU trimmed the OBU edge to 52-39 with 12:40 remaining, but the Bison eventually pulled away late in the second half with 10 straight make it 71-46 with 6:18 left.
  • Oklahoma Baptist took its largest lead with a pair of Jordan Thompson free throws with 1:24 to go, but the Evangels finished strong by scoring seven unanswered in the final 1:13 off a Jasiah Lewis three-pointer and a pair of free throws each from Kody Gilliland and Carlos Slaughter to wrap-up the 82-57 final.

GAME NOTES

• Oklahoma Baptist shot a blistering 27-of-54 (50 percent) from the field, including 13-for-30 (43.3 percent) from the three-point arc while efficiently converting 15-for-19 (78.9 percent) from the charity stripe. The Evangels could only muster 19-of-56 (33.9 percent) against a tough Bison defense while knocking down just 5-for-18 (27.8 percent) from behind the arc.
• While the Evangels were able to convert 44.4 percent of their shots and went 4-for-9 from three in the first half, MACU struggled to find a rhythm in the second half, converting just 24.1 percent of its attempts and went 1-for-9 (11.1 percent) from downtown.
• Despite its shooting troubles, the Evangels did a strong job of taking care of the basketball, committing only 10 turnovers while forcing 12 Bison miscues. However, OBU won the rebounding margin by a 35-26 edge.
• Marvin Lowe led all MACU scorers with 11 points on 5-of-10 shooting, all of which came in the first half while Malik Malone was the only other Evangel to break double-figures with 10 points on 4-of-7 from the floor and 2-for-3 from three.
• Terrance Jones was Mid-America Christian's top rebounder with five boards to go with six points.

 

NEXT UP

• Mid-America Christian will have one more exhibition contest next week before it starts Sooner Athletic Conference play as the Evangels will host NCAA Division II East Central (Okla.) at 4 p.m. on Monday inside the Gaulke Activity Center.