MOORE, Okla. – In a rematch of its season-opener, the MACU men's basketball team put together a dominant defensive performance in a 100-59 victory at Randall on Thursday night.
 
TOP PERFORMERS

• Eddie Smith – 18 Points, 6-10 FG, 4-7 3FG, 2-3 FT, 6 Reb, 4 Stl
• Mikel Henderson – 18 Points, 6-11 FG, 4-9 3FG, 2-2 FT, 5 Reb, 3 Ast, 2 Stl
• DeAngelo Adkins – 12 Points, 5-7 FG, 2-4 FT, 7 Reb, 6 Stl, 2 Ast

GAME SUMMARY

• First Half
  • Mid-America Christian (3-1) opened the first half with an incredible 23-0 run through the first 7:06, capping the run on back-to-back Mikel Henderson three-pointers.
  • Randall (2-4) finally scored its first bucket of the contest at the 13:41 mark on a Braeson Barrs-Richardson pull-up jumper at the top of the key, but the Evangels swung back with five-unanswered from Henderson as another triple preceded a coast-to-coast steal and contested pull-up fastbreak jumper from the right side made it 28-2 with 12:44 left.
  • After two Patrick Perry foul shots closed it to a 25-point game, the Evangels quickly stretched their lead out to 30 when Quentin Woodson was able to recover his own blocked shot and pushed it back in to set the score to 38-8 with 7:07 to go.
  • The Saints chiseled the MACU advantage back down to 24 over the next three minutes, but the Evangels closed out the half by scoring seven of the final 10 points to take a 48-20 lead into the halftime break.
• Second Half
  • RU opened the second half with an Eli Riley fastbreak three from the right side to knock the MACU edge down to under 30, but the Evangels continued to stretch their advantage out over the next eight minutes as Zalek Sharp ended a 22-6 run with an open floating jumper in the paint with 11:33 to go to stretch the advantage to 70-29.
  • The Saints countered with a three-minute stretch where they made five three-pointers, knocking the MACU lead down to 34 before Conner Calavan drained a contested three-pointer from the right wing to push edge out to 81-44 with just over seven minutes left.
  • Following a pair of Perry foul shots, a DeAngelo Adkins and-one ignited another strong 14-2 Evangels run capped off on another Calavan triple from the left wing to give MACU its largest lead of the contest at 95-48 at the 3:46 mark.
  • With the game out of reach, the Saints went on an 11-5 run against MACU's reserves over the final few minutes to wrap-up the 100-59 final.

GAME NOTES

• Mid-America Christian boasted its best shooting performance of the season, converting on 36-of-65 (55.4 percent) of its shot attempts while also shooting a season-best 12-for-29 (41.4 percent) from three and made a season-high 16-of-24 (66.7 percent) from the foul line.
• The Evangels defense held Randall to just 18-of-52 (34.6 percent) from the field and 9-for-31 (29.0 percent) from three.
• The biggest area of impact the MACU defense made was in forcing turnovers as the Evangels recorded an NAIA Era single-game record 20 steals on 25 of RU's turnovers. MACU also controlled the glass, outrebounding Randall 41-30.
• Once again, it was Eddie Smith that led MACU's offensive efforts with 18 points off the bench on 6-of-10 shooting, going 4-for-7 from three to go with six rebounds and four steals.
• Mikel Henderson also led MACU's scoring attack with a career-best 18 points on 6-for-11 from the field and 4-for-9 from three to go along with five boards, three assists and a pair of thefts.
• Filling out the stat sheet as MACU's last double-digit scorer was DeAngelo Adkins, pouring in 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting to go with a team-high seven rebounds and a career-high six steals to go with a pair of dimes.
• The Evangels overall put together a very balanced scoring effort with nine players scoring six or more points as Jasiah Lewis, Connver Calavan and Seth Hurd all finished with nine points while the trio of Zalek Sharp, Magok Manyang and Quentin Woodson all finished with six points.
• Lewis led MACU's distribution efforts with five assists to go with his nine points.
• After getting a 79-59 win over Randall to open the season inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Oct. 30, the Evangels improved to 18-4 against the Saints since the 2003-04 season and have won the last nine games in the series dating back to 2018.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will now prepare for one last Exhibition contest before the Thanksgiving break as the Evangels will travel to Omaha, Nebraska on Wednesday, Nov. 22 to take on NCAA Division I Omaha for a 3 p.m. tipoff inside Baxter Arena.