FORT WORTH, Texas – The Mid-America Christian men's basketball team was able to get a big first half lead and then hold off a late Texas Wesleyan rally from the free throw line to come away with a critical Sooner Athletic Conference by a score 78-75 inside the Sid Richardson Center on Thursday night.
 
TOP PERFORMERS

• Isaiah Hammons – 21 Points, 5-8 FG, 2-3 3FG, 9-10 FT, 5 Reb
• Kendall Scott – 16 Points, 7-14 FG, 3 Reb, 3 Steals
• Toni Kumanovic – 10 Points, 3-7 FG, 2-5 3FG, 2-2 FT, 3 Reb, 2 Steals

GAME SUMMARY

• First Half
  • It was a back-and-forth battle through the first three minutes as the lead changed hands three times before a Vydal Bradford layup with just under 17 minutes left gave Texas Wesleyan a 9-8 edge.
  • A Kendall Scott and-one layup ignited the Mid-America Christian offense as the Evangels rattled off 10 unanswered on a Jasiah Lewis three, a Caleb Riggs jumper and a Quentin Woodson layup to make it 17-8 with 15:15 to go.
  • The Rams rattled off six of the next eight off a pair of threes by Peyton Sallee and Elijah Elliott to trim it to a 19-14 Evangels' edge with 13:15 on the clock.
  • MACU swung back with a 9-4 run of its own over the next three minutes as three-ball by Toni Kumanovic gave the Evangels their first double-digit lead at 28-18 at the midway point of the half.
  • After TWU's Kristian Lafayette notched a tip-in with 9:28 left, the Evangels defense shut down the Rams over the next three minutes. MACU built its largest lead of the game at 35-20 following a Woodson jumper and an Omar Boone three with 7:01 remaining.
  • The Rams turned the tides on Mid-America Christian by holding the Evangels scoreless for nearly five minutes while stringing together an eight-unanswered surge capped off on a Lafayette three-pointer with 3:49 left, trimming their deficit to 35-27.
  • A pair of Lewis free throws at the 2:15 mark finally snapped the Evangels scoring drought before a Lamine Komara knocked down one of two free throws with 1:12 remaining to knock MACU's edge back to single-digits at 37-28.
  • Kumanovic came up clutch for the Evangels final possession of the half as Woodson found the senior guard on the right wing as he banked a three-pointer in just before the buzzer to send MACU into the locker room with the 40-28 advantage.
• Second Half
  • Texas Wesleyan came out firing on all cylinders from behind the arc to start out the second half as the Rams scored nine of the first 11 off of a trio of treys from Layfayette and Peyton Sallee to quickly close it to 42-37 with 17:18 left.
  • After Tony Dorsey and Sallee traded buckets, the Evangels scored the next four off of a pull-up jumper from Riggs to go with a pair of foul shots by Isaiah Hammons to set the score to 48-39 with 14:14 to go.
  • Mid-America Christian struggled to stop TWU's Sebastian Karwoski over the next two minutes as the forward scored seven straight for the Rams before Vydal Bradford tied it up at 48-48 on a layup with 12:33 remaining.
  • Scott was a tough presence on the inside for MACU during an 8-2 run as the 6-6 forward scored six to go with a Lewis layup as the Evangels reclaimed a 56-50 lead at the 9:18 mark.
  • Following a Davon Berry layup, Hammons was able to swell the Evangels' edge back to seven with a pull-up three-pointer to make it 59-52 with just over eight minutes to go.
  • Texas Wesleyan tallied six of the next eight to close it to a one-possession game at 61-58 on an offensive rebound and putback by Layfayette with 6:24 on the clock.
  • The Evangels managed to stretch the advantage back to six on a Kumanovic layup and a Woodson free throw before TWU went on an 11-5 run to tie it up at 69-69 with 2:12 left on a Lafayette hoop-and-harm.
  • On the following MACU possession, Hammons came up clutch from beyond the arc again as Woodson found the senior guard on the left wing for an open three with just under two minutes left.
  • While Lafayette was able to cut it back to one on a layup on the next possession, Mid-America Christian came up with two strong defensive stops to force the Rams into a must-foul situation with 30 seconds left.
  • Hammons buried two pivotal throws before TWU got a quick answer from Davon Berry with a layup at the 20 second mark to bring it back down to one.
  • Kumanovic was promptly fouled two seconds later and knocked down two more crucial free throws before Texas Wesleyan followed suit with a Komara layup with 10 seconds to go to bring it back down to 76-75.
  • After another quick Rams foul, Jasiah Lewis came up clutch with a pair from the charity stripe to force Texas Wesleyan into needing to go for the three to tie.
  • Komara was able to get an open look from the right wing, but the big man was unable to knock down the shot with three seconds left and the Reams were unable to gather the offensive rebound as MACU held on for the 78-75 victory.

GAME NOTES

• Despite suffering the loss, Texas Wesleyan was able to operate with more efficiency on the offensive end by shooting 30-for-59 (50.8 percent) and 7-of-17 (41.2 percent) from three while Mid-America Christian knocked down 27-of-60 (45 percent) and 7-for-20 (35 percent) from beyond the arc.
• The Evangels were able to come away with the win by outperforming the Rams from the foul line, as MACU shot a blistering 17-for-20 (85 percent) while TWU could only muster 8-of-11 (72.7 percent).
• The Evangels did an outstanding job of taking care of the basketball, tying a season-low seven turnovers, which included not committing a single turnover until the 1:21 mark in the first half. Meanwhile, MACU forced Texas Wesleyan into 17 giveaways with 10 steals.
• While the Evangels were able to make up some ground in the turnover differential, MACU struggled to contain Texas Wesleyan's size as the Rams outrebounded the Evangels 33-23.
• Isaiah Hammons continued to be a prolific presence from the foul line for Mid-America Christian as he led the way with 21 points on 5-of-8 shooting, 2-for-3 from the three and an astounding 9-for-10 from the charity stripe. Hammons also led MACU with five boards.
• Kendall Scott pitched in 16 points on 7-for-14 shooting to go with three rebounds and three steals while Toni Kumanovic was the only other Evangel to crack double-figures with 10 points on 3-for-7 from the field, 2-for-5 from the arc and 2-of-2 from the line.
• Jasiah Lewis narrowly missed double-digits with nine points, but made 4-for-5 from the charity stripe, including the two clutch throws in the final 10 seconds.
• With the win, Mid-America Christian avenged a 78-73 overtime loss to the Rams back at the Gaulke Activity Center on Dec. 2, 2021 to split the season series.
• Since suffering an 80-58 loss to No. 6 Southwestern Assemblies of God on Jan. 1, Mid-America Christian has won seven of its last nine games to improve to 14-9 overall and 7-8 in SAC play while Texas Wesleyan dropped to 16-6 and 9-5 against SAC competition.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will be back at home on Saturday for a challenging SAC matchup against No. 15 Science & Arts. Tip-off is slated for 3:45 p.m. inside the Gaulke Activity Center.