OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mid-America Christian men's basketball team continued to stay hot in a home battle against crosstown rival Oklahoma City inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Thursday night as MACU pulled out an 87-78 victory to sweep the season series over the Stars.
 
TOP PERFORMERS

• Caleb Riggs – 22 Points, 8-13 FG, 6-11 3FG, 3 Reb
• Isaiah Hammons – 19 Points, 5-12 FG, 8-10 FT, 14 Reb, 2 Blocks, 2 Steals
• Tony Dorsey – 7 Points, 3-7 FG, 8 Assists, 3 Steals, 3 Reb

GAME SUMMARY

• First Half
  • Mid-America Christian and Oklahoma City traded blows in the early going as the lead changed hands four times in the first 3:45 before a Romario Spence layup gave the Stars their final lead of the game at 6-5.
  • Isaiah Hammons gave MACU the lead back on the ensuing possession with a layup to start an 11-unanswered run. Dorsey scored five of MACU's points during the streak, including getting the hoop and the harm to complete a three-point play before Hammons drained two free throws to give the Evangels a 16-6 lead with 13:32 left.
  • Near the midway point of the second half, Spence tallied five in a row for OCU to cut the MACU advantage in half at 18-13 with 10:29 to go.
  • Omar Boone helped swing momentum back in MACU's favor as a steal leading to a Jasiah Lewis fastbreak lay-in ignited another 9-2 surge as Boone added a three-pointer before Lewis and Toni Kumanovic added to it, stretching the edge to 27-15 with 6:38 remaining.
  • The Stars stormed back behind some white-hot three-point shooting, stringing together a 13-2 run to close it to a 29-28 deficit on a Dravon Clayborn free throw at the 3:42 mark.
  • Caleb Riggs caught fire from behind the arc as he drained threes on back-to-back possessions before a Boone fastbreak layup with 2:14 left extended the lead back to 37-28.
  • Oklahoma City kept the Evangels off the board over the final two minutes as buckets by Zach Lerblance and Clayborn closed it to 37-32 at the halftime break.
• Second Half
  • The Evangels came out on-fire to start the final 20 as a pair of Riggs triples sandwiched a Dorsey steal to Slaughter fastbreak lay-in, stretching the advantage to 45-32 with 18:26 left.
  • MACU and OCU traded three-point blows over the next few minutes before a Spence three-ball and a Rashaun Coleman layup closed it back to single-digits at 50-42 with 15:26 remaining.
  • A Hammons layup and a pair of Kendall Scott free throws grew the MACU edge to 54-42 with 14:12 on the clock as the Evangels maintained the advantage with neither team scoring over the next minute-and-a-half.
  • MACU found its back against the wall when Tony Dorsey was disqualified with 12:34 left, but following 3-of-4 free throws by Kori Guest, the Evangels were able to stem the tide behind a pair of Scott free throws. The Evangels ended the 11-7 run with a beautiful Riggs floater with 9:10 left to make it 65-52.
  • Every time OCU was able to knock the MACU edge below double-figures, the Evangels were able to come up with an answer on three different occasions before Hammons buried a three with 4:32 on the clock to set the score to 75-64.
  • Oklahoma City gave one last late push as the Stars scored eight of the next 10 to shrink the Evangels' lead to 77-72 on a Coleman three with 2:44 to go.
  • Scott came up with two clutch put-ins with under two minutes left as Riggs offensive rebound and dish to Scott brought it back out to 81-72 with 1:07 remaining.
  • Despite three Spence free throws bringing it back to a two-possession game, the Evangels were able to put the game away from the foul line before Hammons emphatically ended it with a fastbreak dunk on MACU's final possession to secure the 87-78 victory.

GAME NOTES

• Mid-America Christian was efficient from the floor on the offensive end with a 30-for-66 (45.5 percent) shooting clip, including going 10-of-26 (38.5 percent) from three and converting an efficient 17-for-24 (70.8 percent) from the foul line.
• Oklahoma City was also solid on the offensive end with a 25-of-58 (43.1 percent) rate and 12-for-27 (44.4 percent) from three and 16-of-22 (72.7 percent) from the line.
• The Evangels ability to create extra offensive possessions made the biggest difference in the game as MACU only committed 11 turnovers and dished out 17 assists while forcing 17 Stars miscues and tallied just 13 assists. MACU also won the rebounding battle by a 40-to-35 margin for the match.
• Caleb Riggs pieced together his best offensive performance of the year, scoring a season-high 22 points on 8-of-13 from the field and 6-for-11 from behind the arc.
• Isaiah Hammons notched his first double-double of the season off the MACU bench, tallying 19 points on 5-of-12 shooting and went 8-for-10 from the charity stripe. Hammons also pulled down a season-best 14 boards to go with a pair of blocks and two steals on the defensive end.
• Jasiah Lewis finished with 14 points while Kendall Scott rounded out the double-figure scorers with 10 points to go with six rebounds.
• In just 24 minutes of action, Tony Dorsey continued to put up eye-popping assist numbers with eight dimes to just two turnovers while also recording seven points, three steals and three boards.
• By getting the win, the Evangels have improved to 16-10 overall on the season and are 9-9 in Sooner Athletic Conference play. MACU gained some ground on the Stars in the conference standings as Oklahoma City dropped to 13-13 overall and 12-7 in league play.
• With Texas Wesleyan also falling to Wayland Baptist, the Evangels have gained some ground on the Rams for one of the top four spots as MACU now sits just 1.5 games back of cracking into the top four.
• Mid-America Christian swept the season series from OCU after the Evangels came away with an 81-68 victory inside Abe Lemons Arena back on Jan. 6.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will start a two-game road stint on Saturday as the Evangels will head to Siloam Springs, Ark. for a crucial SAC matchup against John Brown. The game is scheduled for a 3:45 p.m. tip-off.