OKLAHOMA CITY – The seventh-seeded Mid-America Christian men's basketball team was able to overcome a slow start and then held off a furious comeback by No. 10 seed UNT Dallas to come away with an 83-72 win in the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament opening round at the Gaulke Activity Center on Tuesday night.
 
TOP PERFORMERS

• Isaiah Hammons – 20 Points, 7-12 FG, 2-6 3FG, 5 Reb
• Tony Dorsey – 18 Points, 6-10 FG, 6-9 FT, 7 Reb, 5 Assists, 4 Steals
• Caleb Riggs – 16 Points, 5-12 FG, 5-11 3FG, 3 Reb, 3 Steals

GAME SUMMARY

• First Half
  • Mid-America Christian struggled offensively in the early going, not making a single field goal through the first six minutes before Kendall Scott made a strong cut to the basket and put through the right-handed layup off a nice dish by Tarrence Gaines in the low post, closing the gap to 12-7 with 14 minutes to go.
  • Gaines scored the next five points before Isaiah Hammons buried a three from the left wing to give MACU its first lead at 15-12 with 11:22 left.
  • The Trailblazers fought back to take the lead just past the midway point as a three-point play by Larry Rusk capped a 7-1 UNTD surge to make it a 19-16 game with 9:13 to go.
  • An emphatic dunk by Hammons with just under nine remaining followed by a Riggs three put the Evangels back in-front, but the Trailblazers gained the lead back on an A-Montre Williams jumper and Larry Rusk free throw, setting the score to 22-21 at the 6:57 mark.
  • Jasiah Lewis' strong take to the basket for the lay-in started a 17-3 MACU streak as Hammons rebound and fastbreak take to the basket gave the Evangels their largest lead of the half at 38-25 with 1:44 left.
  • UNT-Dallas tallied the next four to bring it back to single-digits, but Hammons knocked down a pair of foul shots with 25 seconds to go to send MACU into the half with a 40-29 advantage.
• Second Half
  • Jevon Burton's three-pointer with 17:22 on the clock kept the Trailblazers to within 11 before the Evangels rattled off 11 of the next 16 as Riggs nailed threes from the right wing on back-to-back possessions to swell the Evangels' edge to 52-35 with just under 14 minutes left.
  • A 5-1 UNTD spurt brought it back to 13 before another Riggs three-ball ignited a 15-4 MACU run as Gaines three-ball with 8:57 remaining gave the Evangels their largest lead of the game at 70-47.
  • UNT-Dallas clawed its way back following a Vernon Johnson three on the ensuing possession, as the Trailblazers strapped together a 13-4 surge to bring it back to 74-60 on a Christian Plummer jump-shot with 4:41 to go.
  • After Hammons picked off a pass at the top of the key to go in for a fastbreak dunk, the Trailblazers continued to hammer back by scoring nine of the following 11 points as Rodrick Gaines three-pointer with 1:11 left closed the UNTD deficit to single-digits for the first time since the final minute of the first half, making it a 78-69 game.
  • With UNT-Dallas in foul mode, Tony Dorsey put the game away from the foul line by making 4-for-4 in the final minute and Toni Kumanovic converted a foul shot before Johnson scored the final bucket with 10 seconds left to wrap-up the 83-72 final score.

GAME NOTES

• After starting off the game 0-for-10 from the field and 0-of-5 from three, Mid-America Christian finished the contest by knocking down 28-of-58 (48.3 percent) of its shots and 9-for-24 (37.5 percent) from three.
• MACU limited UNT-Dallas to 27-for-65 (41.5 percent), but the Trailblazers shot well above their season average from the three-point arc at 9-of-20 (45 percent).
• Both teams struggled mightily from the free throw line as the Evangels finished 18-for-32 (56.3 percent) while UNTD could only convert 9-for-19 (47.4 percent).
• UNT-Dallas won the rebounding battle by a 41-to-37 margin, but the Evangels were able to force 14 Trailblazers turnovers while committing their third-fewest giveaways of the season at nine.
• Isaiah Hammons led the MACU offensive efforts with his fifth 20-plus point game in the last eight contests, scoring 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting and went 2-for-6 from beyond the arc to go with five boards.
• Tony Dorsey finished with a season-high 18 points on 6-for-10 shooting and 6-of-9 from the free throw line with seven boards, five assists and four steals.
• Coming off his record-tying three-point performance at Langston on Saturday, Caleb Riggs continued to stay hot from behind the arc, knocking down 5-for-11 to finish with 16 points to go with three rebounds and three steals.
• Kendall Scott narrowly missed a double-double, scoring eight points to go with a team-high nine rebounds.
• By getting the victory, Mid-America Christian notched its sixth 20-plus win season in the last eight campaigns with the lone exceptions being the 2016-17 season when MACU went 16-16 and the COVID-19 impacted 2020-21 season that saw MACU go 12-5 and compete in the NAIA Tournament.
• Mid-America Christian improved to 20-11 and will advance to the SAC Quarterfinal round while UNT-Dallas sees its season come to an end with a 12-18 overall record.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will continue its SAC Tournament run in Waxahachie, Texas on Friday as the Evangels will take on No. 2 seed and nationally 16^th-ranked Southwestern Assemblies of God in the quarterfinal round. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. inside the Sheaffer Center.