WAXAHACHIE, Texas – The Mid-America Christian men's basketball team's recent success inside the Sheaffer Center continued in a big way on Monday night as the Evangels offense came alive in a dominant 92-74 road win against No. 9 Southwestern Assemblies of God.
 
TOP PERFORMERS

• Kendall Scott – 25 Points, 11-18 FG, 18 Reb, 3 Assists
• Isaiah Hammons – 22 Points, 6-14 FG, 4-7 3FG, 6-6 FT, 7 Reb, 5 Assists, 2 Steals
• Caleb Riggs – 14 Points, 5-13 FG, 4-8 3FG
• Tony Dorsey – 4 Points, 9 Assists, 6 Reb, 2 Steals

GAME SUMMARY

• First Half
  • Southwestern Assemblies of God jumped out to an early lead off of a pair of three-pointers by Nathan Bailey and Joshua Kashila to take a 6-2 lead just 1:36 into the contest.
  • The Evangels managed to battle back to tie it on back-to-back layups from Kendall Scott and Jasiah Lewis, but the Lions countered with five unanswered, capped off on a Joel Polius layup with 15:45 to go to bring the score to 11-6.
  • On the ensuing possession, Isaiah Hammons was a one-man wrecking crew coming off the bench as back-to-back threes by the senior guard started an 11-0 surge by the Evangels. After dishing it to Scott for a dunk following a Tony Dorsey steal, Caleb Riggs capped the run with his first of four triples on the day with 14:03 remaining to make it 17-11.
  • SAGU slowly whittled the MACU edge down to two at 19-17 on a pair of Tyler Kinghorn free throws at the 11:25 mark, but another Hammons layup following a Tarrence Gaines steal started a 10-2 run as a Scott fastbreak finish pushed the Evangels' edge back out to double-figures at 29-19 with just under eight minutes to go.
  • The Lions could only make one more strong push in the half as SAGU rattled off five in a row on an Isaiah Boling three and a Nykolas Mason offensive board and put-back to close it to 31-26 with 6:04 left.
  • While Riggs and Hammons continued to make it rain from the three-point arc over the next few minutes, the Lions continued to keep it to a two-possession game at 39-33 when Kashila drained his first three with 3:40 on the clock.
  • Omar Boone sucked the life out of the Lions rally by draining three-pointers on back-to-back possessions before a Lewis layup led up to Boone's eighth-point in 2:30 to stretch the MACU edge all the way out to 49-33 with 1:19 to go.
  • A Kinghorn lay-in briefly stopped the run, but Toni Kumanovic was able to send MACU into the locker room with a 16-point advantage after drawing a foul with two seconds left and draining a pair of foul shots to make it 51-35 at the break.
• Second Half
  • Southwestern Assemblies of God secured the early momentum to start the second half as the Lions opened with a 9-1 run to close it back to single-digits on a Joel Polius fastbreak dunk, setting the score to 52-44 with 17:14 remaining.
  • After calling a timeout to regroup, Riggs knocked down a three to start a string of seven unanswered for the Evangels as a Scott layup and two Hammons free throws brought it back out to a 59-44 game with 15:40 on the clock.
  • Despite another Bailey three-pointer briefly halting the run, MACU swung back with another seven straight points off of a pair of layups by Boone and Carlos Slaughter. To wrap up the run, Boone notched a theft that led out to a Hammons three from the wing to give the Evangels their largest advantage of the game to this point at 66-47 with 14:20 left.
  • Approaching the midway point, the Lions clamped down on the red-hot MACU offense as SAGU strung together an 11-unanswered streak as Polius put-back with 10:42 to go closed the deficit to single-digits at 66-58.
  • Riggs continued to be the catalyst for the MACU offense off of big SAGU runs as his three-ball two possessions later jumpstarted a 13-2 surge. Scott and Hammons combined to score 10 of MACU's 13 points as a Scott freebie extended the edge to 79-60 with just under six minutes left.
  • The Lions mustered just one more run the rest of the way as SAGU tallied 10 of the next 14 over the next three minutes. Two more Kinghorn free throws brought it to an 83-70 Lions deficit, but that would be the closest SAGU could cut into the MACU advantage.
  • After running the shot clock down, Scott buried a back-breaking three as nine in a row as Jasiah Lewis' corner jumper with 1:04 remaining gave MACU its largest lead of the contest at 92-70.
  • SAGU's Alerick Hall scored the final four points over the last minute to wrap-up the 92-74 final.

GAME NOTES

• While scoring was tougher to come by in the second half after Mid-America Christian shot 52.6 percent, including 50 percent from three in the first half, the Evangels still finished with a very efficient 31-of-66 (47 percent) shooting and 13-for-31 (41.9 percent) from downtown.
• The MACU defense frustrated the Lions, limiting Southwestern Assemblies of God to only 27-for-70 (38.6 percent) from the floor and 8-for-35 (22.9 percent) from behind the arc.
• The Evangels were especially able to frustrate the Sooner Athletic Conference's leading scorer in Nykolas Mason. The 2019-20 SAC Player of the Year was held to his lowest scoring output of the season, scoring just six points on 3-for-8 shooting and committed four turnovers.
• MACU was able to win the rebounding battle by a 44-42 margin on the glass. The Evangels were able to operate their offense at high efficiency, dishing out 20 assists to only 12 turnovers while the Lions finished with just 12 assists to 14 giveaways.
• It was a record-breaking night for senior forward Kendall Scott. Not only did he lead the game with 25 points on 11-for-18 from the field, but he also pulled down a career-high 18 rebounds to break MACU's NAIA Era single-game rebounds record. The previous best mark of 17 was set by Justin Bogle in a win over Ecclesia on Dec. 5, 2018 before Terrance Jones tied it in a win at LSU-Shreveport on Nov. 1, 2021.
• Isaiah Hammons also finished with a big game offensively, scoring 22 points in 22 minutes off the MACU bench on 6-for-14 from the field, 4-of-7 from three-point range and 6-for-6 from the foul line. Hammons also had a strong floor game with seven boards, five assists and a pair of steals.
• Caleb Riggs put in 14 points, including 12 on 4-for-8 from downtown while the double-digit scoring efforts were capped off on Jasiah Lewis with 11 points and Omar Boone with 10.
• Tony Dorsey continued his stellar point guard play with a season-best 9-to-1 assist/turnover ratio while also pulling down six boards and notching two steals.
• With the victory, Mid-America Christian has won four straight games inside the Sheaffer Center. MACU came away with a 94-91 win over the Lions last season in the SAC Semifinals on Feb. 27, 2021.
• Since suffering an 80-58 defeat to SAGU inside the Gaulke Activity Center on New Year's Day, the Evangels have now won eight of their last 11 games.
• With the victory improving the Evangels record to 15-10, Mid-America Christian also jumped into seventh in the SAC standings with an 8-9 league mark while Southwestern Assemblies of God fell to 17-6 overall and are now two games back of Science & Arts in the league standings at 14-4.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will face another one of the top teams in the SAC on Thursday as the Evangels will return home for a 7:45 p.m. tip-off against Oklahoma City inside the Gaulke Activity Center.