OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mid-America Christian men's basketball team executed at a high level on the offensive end in its final regular season game inside the Gaulke Activity Center as the Evangels cruised to a 96-78 Senior Night victory over Central Christian.

It was a historic record-breaking night for one such senior in Isaiah Hammons. After tying the record for the second-most free throws made in a single game in the NAIA Era by going 14-for-18, Hammons surpassed MACU Player of the Decade Charlie Shorter as the program's NAIA Era single season record holder for free throws made at 153.
 
TOP PERFORMERS

• Isaiah Hammons – 22 Points, 4-10 FG, 14-18 FT, 6 Reb, 5 Assists
• Tony Dorsey – 16 Points, 7-10 FG, 10 Reb, 4 Assists
• Kendall Scott – 16 Points, 4-6 FG, 7-8 FT, 6 Reb

GAME SUMMARY

• First Half
  • Mid-America Christian set the tone from the outset, scoring the first six points of the contest behind an Isaiah Hammons three-point play and a Kendall Scott lay-in leading to another Hammons foul shot at the 16:45 mark.
  • After Central Christian's Andre Shelbe scored the Tigers first bucket on the ensuing possession, the Evangels swung back by scoring 15 of the next 17 points. Toni Kumanovic scored six of MACU's points during the run while Tony Dorsey capped it with a layup off a nice Jasiah Lewis feed to make it 21-4 with 12:23 left.
  • The Tigers surged their way back by rattling off 11 of the next 13 points as a Demario Moore three closed it to 23-15 with 9:16 to go.
  • On MACU's next offensive possession, Lewis swung the momentum back in the Evangels favor with a three-point bomb from the corner as Mid-America Christian scored 12 of the next 15 points as a pair of Hammons free throws pushed the lead back out to 35-18 with just under six minutes left.
  • Central Christian was unable to knock the MACU edge below 13 the rest of the way as Hammons ended the half with a bang, going from baseline-to-baseline with 4.7 seconds left to beat the halftime buzzer to send the Evangels into the break with a 53-36 advantage.
• Second Half
  • Central Christian scored six of the first eight to open the final 20, but a Hammons dunk off a Kumanovic offensive board started a 7-2 MACU run as Kumanovic three-ball made it a 62-44 game with 16:25 remaining.
  • Mid-America Christian continued to slowly pull away over the next four minutes as Lewis rattled off five in a row off a three-pointer followed by a pull-up jumper with 11:50 left to bring the lead to 73-50.
  • The Tigers battled back over the next two minutes as CCCK scored eight straight before Caleb Riggs silenced the run with a three with 9:12 to go before hitting his second triple in less than a minute at the 8:15 mark to swell the advantage back to 79-60.
  • The Evangels briefly extended their edge back to 21 with 6:16 to go as Hammons went 4-for-4 from the free throw line in a 42-second stretch, making it an 83-62 game.
  • Central only briefly knocked MACU's edge below 20 before Scott drained a big time three from the top of the key before flushing a dunk off a phenomenal Dorsey assist, setting the edge back to 89-68 with 3:29 left.
  • Dorsey gave MACU its largest lead of the contest at 96-72 with 1:24 left when he banked in a three-pointer from the left wing to beat the shot clock before Central Christian's Demario Moore knocked down two threes in the final minute to wrap-up the 96-78 final.

GAME NOTES

• The 96 points Mid-America Christian scored was a season-high against a Sooner Athletic Conference opponent, as the Evangels finished the contest shooting 29-for-50 (58 percent) from the field, 9-of-26 (34.6 percent) from three and converted a very efficient 29-of-37 (78.4 percent) from the free throw line.
• The Evangels defense limited Central Christian to just 26-for-61 (42.6 percent) shooting, including just 7-of-24 (29.2 percent) from three, but knocked down 19-for-27 (70.4 percent) from the charity stripe.
• MACU controlled the glass by a 37-25 margin, but Central Christian did take better care of the basketball, committing just seven turnovers to 13 for the Evangels.
• Senior guard Isaiah Hammons led the MACU scoring efforts with 22 points on 4-of-10 shooting, but did most of his damage from the free throw line by tying Terrance Jones and Semar Farris for the second-most foul shots made in a game with 14 while his 18 attempts marked the second-most in the record book as well. Hammons also finished with six rebounds and dished out a team-high five assists.
• Senior guard Tony Dorsey recorded his first career double-double in his final regular season home game, scoring 16 points on 7-of-10 from the floor while ripping down a career-high 10 rebounds to go with four assists.
• Despite facing foul trouble for the entire first half, senior forward Kendall Scott played an efficient game in just 19 minutes of action, scoring 16 points on 4-of-6 from the field and 7-for-8 from the foul line to go with six boards.
• Jasiah Lewis rounded out the double-digit scorers for MACU with 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting, including 2-for-3 from three.
• By getting a win compounded by a John Brown loss at Science & Arts, Mid-America Christian moved into a tie for sixth in the Sooner Athletic Conference standings with an 11-10 league mark and an 18-11 overall record.
• If the Evangels can get a win at Langston and a Texas Wesleyan victory at JBU on Saturday, MACU would go into the SAC Tournament as the No. 6 seed. If the Golden Eagles win, then it would be a three-way tie for fifth in the standings between the three teams with JBU earning the No. 5 seed, Texas Wesleyan in the sixth spot and the Evangels in the No. 7 seed off of tiebreaking procedures.
• Before the start of the game, Mid-America Christian honored its six graduating seniors with a ceremony: Tony Dorsey, Toni Kumanovic, Omar Boone, Carlos Slaughter, Isaiah Hammons and Kendall Scott.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will wrap-up the regular season on Saturday as the Evangels will head to Langston, Okla. for a 3:45 p.m. tip-off against Langston inside C.F. Gayles Arena.