OKLAHOMA CITY – Senior forward Dominick Ford scored a career-high 19 points on Senior Day to lead the Mid-America Christian men's basketball team to a come-from-behind 68-60 victory over Central Christian inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Saturday.

 
STAT LEADERS

• Dominick Ford – 19 PTS, 7-12 FG, 3-5 3FG, 2-2 FT, 9 REB, 3 AST
• Terrance Jones – 12 PTS, 5-12 FG, 2-2 FT, 10 REB, 3 STL, 2 AST
• Jasiah Lewis – 12 PTS, 3-7 FG, 2-4 3FG, 4-6 FT, 5 REB

 

GAME SUMMARY

• 1^st Half
  • Mid-America Christian (9-3, 5-2 Sooner Athletic Conference) opened the game by scoring 10 of the first 13 points thanks to a pair of three-pointers from Cole Whittern followed by a Dominick Ford score and a pair of Terrance Jones free throws with 15:38 remaining.
  • Central Christian (9-7, 3-6 SAC) briefly trimmed the lead to five before Ford knocked down a floater in the lane and hit a three from the right corner on back-to-back possessions to give the Evangels their largest lead of the half at 15-5 with 13:39 on the clock.
  • MACU led by nine midway through the half before the Tigers went on a 9-0 run to tie the game at 17 with 9:09 left on Byron Staten's free throw.
  • Ford broke the tie with a triple from the left wing to make it 22-19 with 6:43 remaining, but CCC answered with nine straight to take a 28-22 lead on Roy Ochonogor's jumper with just over four minutes to go until the break.
  • The Evangels managed to keep it to within a couple of scores for the remainder of the half, but Central Christian's Kenzell Williams managed to hit a three-pointer right at the buzzer to extend the Tigers' edge to 35-27 at the half.
• 2^nd Half
  • Ford managed to get a couple of early buckets in the second half to help the Evangels stick with the Tigers, but CCC's Isaiah Rivera buried a three with 16:41 left to give Central Christian its largest lead of the match at 40-31.
  • Derrick Magiya's layup on the ensuing possession jumpstarted a seven unanswered run for the Evangels as Terrance Jones' fastbreak lay-in with 15:11 remaining to help MACU crawl to within two at 40-38.
  • Following a CCC free throw, MACU quickly pushed the tempo as Marvin Lowe knocked down a tightly contested layup before Jones went coast-to-coast after grabbing a rebound and putting in another fastbreak layup with 13:03 remaining to give the Evangels the lead back at 42-41.
  • The two squads battled back and forth as the lead swapped hands four times until they battled to a 48-all tie at the midway point. A Jones jumper 32 seconds later ignited a run of six straight that was finished off on Jasiah Lewis' three from the left corner to make it a 54-48 MACU edge with 6:36 to go.
  • The Evangels were able to push the advantage out to as much as eight before the Tigers cut their deficit to four on a Williams layup with 2:17 left.
  • The MACU defense came up clutch over the next 1:40, allowing only one point while extending the advantage to its largest of the game at 11 after Lewis hit a crucial jumper with 40 seconds left and then followed it up with two clutch free throws just 10 seconds later.
  • CCC's Reece Warren knocked down a three-pointer with five seconds left to close out the 68-60 final score.

 

GAME NOTES

• It was a tale of two halves for both teams. While Mid-America Christian struggled offensively in the first half, scoring just 27 points on 10-for-34 (29.4 percent) shooting and 4-of-17 (23.5 percent) from three in the first half, the Evangels flipped the script in the second by knocking down 14-for-26 (53.9 percent) from the field, 4-for-7 (57.1 percent) from range and 9-of-10 (90 percent) from the foul line.
• After shooting 11-for-25 (44 percent) from the field, 4-of-13 (30.8 percent) from three and attempting 16 free throws in the first half, Central Christian was stymied in the second as the Evangels held the Tigers to only 9-of-31 (29 percent) shooting, including 3-for-13 (23 percent) from downtown and limited CCC to just seven free throw attempts.
• While CCC held a slight 40-to-39 edge on the class, the Evangels won the turnover battle by committing just 10 for the game while forcing 15 Tigers turnovers.
• In a career-best offensive performance, Dominick Ford scored 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 3-for-5 from three and knocked down both free throw attempts. Ford also finished just a board shy of a double-double with nine rebounds. The performance comes just a week after his previous career-high scoring performance of 18 points in an 84-78 win at Oklahoma City last Saturday.
• Terrance Jones finished with a double-double, scoring 12 points on 5-of-12 shooting to go with 10 boards and three steals.
• Jasiah Lewis rounded out the double-figure scorers with 12 points to go with five rebounds.

 

NEXT UP

• Mid-America Christian will play its final home game of the regular season when it takes on Langston in a rescheduled matchup on Tuesday. Tip-off is slated for 6 p.m. inside the Gaulke Activity Center.