PANAMA CITY, Fla. – The MACU men's basketball team was able to hang in the early going against the ninth-ranked team in the country at the Battle at the Beach inside Billy Harrison Fieldhouse on Tuesday night, but the Eagles gained some second half momentum to pull away with an 80-59 victory.
TOP PERFORMERS
- Jonathan Alexandre – 14 Points, 4-7 3FG, 2-2 FT, 6 Reb
- Seth Hurd – 13 Points, 6-9 FG, 5 Reb
- Eylan Goodwyn – 8 Points, 6 Reb
GAME SUMMARY
- First Half
- Mid-America Christian (2-4) kept it close early when Jaylon Barnett drove down the left side and kissed a floating jumper off the glass to make it a one-point game before Faulkner (7-0) went on a nine-unanswered run capped off on a Daniel Garmendia steal and coast-to-coast layup to make it a 14-4 Eagles lead with 13:37 to go.
- The Evangels managed to keep it to within three possessions for the next few minutes as Barnett saved an errant pass down the right sideline to a wide-open Jonathan Alexandre for a three-pointer from the right wing, but Faulkner once again put together a solid run. The Eagles seven straight as Trace Hill hit a pull-up jumper from the right elbow to cap the run with 7:38 left, swelling the lead to 27-12.
- Another Alexandre three on the ensuing possession ignited an 11-4 Evangels run as Tarrence Gaines dribbled around a screen and buried a three from the left wing to bring it back to an eight-point game at 31-23 with 4:37 remaining.
- The Eagles once again stretched their advantage to as much as 12 on a C.J. Hines rebound and end-to-end fastbreak layup with 35 seconds left, but Alexandre gave MACU some momentum going into the half as Conner Calavan kicked it to him from the foul line on the left wing as he buried it to beat the shot clock with three seconds left to make it a 41-32 game going into the break.
- Second Half
- The Evangels and Eagles went toe-to-toe to start the second half as Seth Hurd scored four of MACU's first seven point in-between a Gaines triple as his tighly-contested fallaway hook shot banked off the glass and rolled in to set the score to 46-39 with 16:25 on the clock.
- While the Evangels were able to keep the deficit to single-digits over the next two minutes, a Derrick Donigan cut and finish down the right lane started a 10-point Eagles streak that was finished off on a Hill three-point play, stretching the edge to 59-41 with 12:49 left.
- MACU managed to briefly knock it down to a 13-point deficit when Trevonte Doolittle made a stellar cut off a Hurd dish to finish off a three-point play on a left-handed layup in the paint, bringing it to 61-48 at the 9:54 mark.
- A Barnett layup with 7:04 to go was MACU's last score in just over four minutes as Faulkner went on a nine-unanswered surge to extend the edge to 76-53 until Alexandre buried a pair of free throws with 2:50 remaining, but the game was ultimately out of reach.
GAME NOTES
- For the fourth straight game, Mid-America Christian shot under 37-percent from the field as MACU went 20-for-55 (36.4 percent) from the floor and just 8-of-25 (32 percent) from three. However, one positive the Evangels took out of the contest is that they buried all 11 of their free throw attempts for the game.
- Faulkner shot 27-of-58 (46.6 percent) from the field and 9-for-26 (34.6 percent) from three, but like MACU, the Eagles knocked down a highly efficient 17-for-18 (94.4 percent) from the charity stripe.
- MACU's defense struggled to force Faulkner into turning the ball over as the Eagles only recorded seven giveaways in the entire game while the Evangels finished with 14. Faulkner was also able to hold a slight 35-32 edge on the glass.
- Without their leading scorer in DaRaun Clark, the Evangels relieved heavily on Jonathan Alexandre's offensive production off the bench as he led all MACU scorers with 14 point on 4-of-10 shooting, which included 4-of-7 from the three-point arc to go with six rebounds.
- Seth Hurd was the only other MACU player to crack into double-digit scoring with 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting to go with five boards.
- Jaylon Barnett led MACU's distribution efforts with three assists to go with four points and recorded the Evangels' lone steal in the contest.
- MACU saw its losing streak stretch to four games while Faulkner continued to remain unbeaten in the 2022-23 season with its seventh straight win.
UP NEXT
- Mid-America Christian will have another tall task to wrap-up the Battle at the Beach on Wednesday as the Evangels will face-off against No. 10 LSU-Shreveport. Tip-off is slated for 2 p.m. inside Billy Harrison Fieldhouse.
