OKLAHOMA CITY – Senior guard Isaiah Hammons put up an eye-popping performance in his Mid-America Christian men's basketball debut as he dropped 32 points and notched five assists and five steals, guiding the Evangels to a dominant 108-48 victory over Ozark Christian in the season-opener inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Saturday.
 
TOP PERFORMERS

• Isaiah Hammons – 32 Points, 12-14 FG, 3-3 3FG, 5-5 FT, 5 Assists, 5 Steals
• Terrance Jones – 14 Points, 5-10 FG, 11 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 2 Steals
• Caleb Riggs – 10 Points, 4-8 FG, 2-6 3FG, 2 Assists

GAME SUMMARY

• First Half
  • Jasiah Lewis knocked down a three on the first possession of the contest, but both teams struggled to score over the following three minutes before Lewis knocked down a layup with 16:03 to go to make it a 5-0 MACU edge.
  • Ozark Christian rattled off five unanswered to cut the Evangels lead to 7-5 with just over 14 minutes remaining, but Mid-America Christian countered as an Isaiah Hammons three-pointer jumpstarted a 13-2 Evangels run. Quentin Woodson capped the run in his MACU debut with an offensive rebound and put-back to make it a 20-7 game with 10:06 left.
  • A jumper by OCC's Anthony Johnson only momentarily thwarted the run as another Hammons jumpshot started another string of eight straight as scores by Woodson, Caleb Riggs and Toni Kumanovic extended the Evangels' edge to 28-9 with 7:22 to go.
  • The Evangels put together another run following an Aason Cross bucket, as a Riggs triple followed by a pair of Terrance Jones free throws and a Jones layup brought the score to 35-14 with just over five minutes remaining.
  • Mid-America Christian and Ozark Christian battled back and forth over the next few minutes, but the Evangels put together a stellar finish to the half. A three-point splash by Tony Dorsey was the catalyst for an 11-0 streak as MACU ended the run with Hammons scoring the final five points on a layup and a three-point play to send the Evangels into the half with a 53-20 advantage.
• Second Half
  • Mid-America Christian continued to pull away to start out the second half, getting scores from Carlos Slaughter, Dorsey, Jones and Riggs during a 12-3 streak to build the Evangels' edge to 65-23 with 14:46 on the clock.
  • A Callaway Bain layup only briefly stopped the Evangels surge as a Dorsey fastbreak layup followed by a Hammons steal leading to a fastbreak dunk for Jones started another 13-3 run. Hammons fastbreak layup off of a Jones block and board build MACU's lead up to 78-28 with 10:13 to go.
  • The Evangels put together another strong spurt with just under seven minutes to go in the contest. Following a Carl Proctor layup, Hammons slammed home a posterizing dunk off an inbound play before draining a three on the ensuing possession and then slammed home another dunk on the following possession. Eylan Goodwyn laid home a fastbreak layup for his first career score while Michael Wooten scored his first career bucket with 4:42 left to cap off the 12-unanswered run, bringing the score to 98-34.
  • In the final three minutes, junior guard Dallas Burko and freshman guard Konner Davis each knocked down their first career three-pointers for the Evangels as MACU closed out the 108-48 victory.

GAME NOTES

• Mid-America Christian shot a blistering 43-for-79 (54.4 percent) from the floor and went 10-for-26 (38.5 percent) from three while holding Ozark Christian to just 18-of-58 (31 percent) from the field and 4-for-20 (20 percent) from three-point range.  
• The Evangels did an excellent job of taking care of the basketball, committing just 10 turnovers while forcing the Ambassadors into 25 giveaways in the contest. MACU was overwhelming on the glass, outrebounding OCC by a 53-28 margin.
• Isaiah Hammons led the offensive and defensive efforts with 32 points in his Evangels' debut, shooting a nearly unblemished 12-for-14 from the field and went 3-for-3 from three and 5-of-5 from the foul line. Hammons also recorded five steals and dished out five assists in just 17 minutes of action.
• NAIA All-American Terrance Jones led the Evangels on the glass, ripping down 11 rebounds and finished with 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting.
• The Evangels had 16 players see the floor in the victory while 13 different players scored.
• The 48 points allowed was the second-fewest MACU has given up to an opponent since joining the NAIA in 2007. The Evangels just narrowly missed the record after holding Ecclesia to just 45 points in a 103-45 victory back on Nov. 12, 2020.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will be back in-action on Tuesday night as the Evangels will face Randall (Okla.) for a 7 p.m. tip-off inside the Gaulke Activity Center.