OKLAHOMA CITY – For the second straight year, Ozark Christian came into the Gaulke Activity Center and gave the MACU men's basketball team a strong challenge, but the Evangels managed to hold off a furious Ambassadors rally in the second half to secure a 76-72 victory in the Homecoming showdown on Friday night.
 
TOP PERFORMERS

• Eddie Smith – 15 Points, 7-15 FG, 1-2 3FG, 4 Reb, 4 Assists, 4 Steals
• Jasiah Lewis – 12 Points, 5-8 FG, 1-3 3FG, 4 Reb, 3 Assists
• Quentin Woodson – 11 Points, 3-5 FG, 3 Reb
• DeAngelo Adkins – 10 Points, 5-12 FG, 8 Reb, 2 Steals

 
GAME SUMMARY

• First Half

• Mid-America Christian (2-0) wasted no time taking the lead a mere 15 seconds into the game when Magok Manyang skillfully slammed the ball off the glass from Mikel Henderson's missed layup to give MACU the 2-0 advantage right from the start.
• After a highly contested first seven minutes, Ozark Christian managed to secure a one-point lead at 9-8 with 13:28 left when Dre Johnson beat his defender off the dribble down the right and gently laid in the uncontested go-ahead bucket.
• The Ambassadors advantage was short lived as Zalek Sharp hit a floating jumper from the left wing on the ensuing possession, jumpstarting a 13-3 Evangels run as Eddie Smith and Jalen Goar combined to score the next nine points before Manyang capped it with a tip-in on the offensive board to set the score to 21-12 with 7:53 to go.
• The Ambassadors were resolute in their efforts to challenge the Evangels for the lead. Nevertheless, Jasiah Lewis found an opening and skillfully dribbled the ball all the way from the back of the court, effortlessly navigating through the defense and widening the lead to 27-17 with 4:17 left.
• Following a Dillon Bycroft three at the 3:24 mark to cut the MACU advantage back to single-digits, the Evangels closed out the half with a powerful 12-3 run as a Tarrence Gaines steal led to a fastbreak lay-in by Jasiah Lewis just before the buzzer sounded to send the Evangels into the half with the 41-23 advantage.

• Second Half

• Ozark Christian scored seven of the first nine points coming out of the locker room to start the second half before Manyang extended the lead back out to 17 at 46-29 with just under 18 minutes left following a pick-and-pop from the top of the key off a Smith dish.
• The Ambassadors swung back with another 7-2 surge over the next two minutes as Bycroft's second three of the half closed it to 48-36 with 15:25 to go.
• Mid-America Christian steadily built its lead out to 17 once again when Jalen Goar found Conner Calavan open on the left wing, splashing three with 12:20 remaining to make it a 58-41 contest.
• Over the next five minutes, Ozark Christian successfully trimmed MACU's lead to just seven with 7:08 remaining in the game by holding the Evangels scoreless over a three-and-half minute stretch as Danny Foster's floating hook circled in to make it 62-55.
• MACU finally snapped out of the dry spell with just over six minutes left when Mikel Henderson curled off the screen to the left side before knocking down a quick pull-off off Smith's in-bound, jumpstarting an 8-2 run that was finished off on DeAngelo Adkins' tip-in off the offensive board to bring it to 70-57 with 3:02 on the clock.
• Ozark Christian cut it back to a 10-point game on the following possession, but the Ambassadors would climb no closer as the Evangels held OCC to just two free throws over the final two-and-a-half minutes as MACU closed out the 76-62 win.

GAME NOTES

• Mid-America Christian still struggled from beyond the arc after a cold shooting night on Monday, shooting just 6-for-25 (24.0 percent) from three, but the Evangels were more efficient from the field and from the foul line, knocking down 44.3 percent of their shot attempts and converted 8-of-10 (80 percent) from the charity stripe.
• Ozark Christian had a solid offensive outing in its own right, converting on 41.2 percent of its attempts from the field, went 9-for-22 (40.9 percent) from three and converted 11-for-15 (73.3 percent) from the foul line.
• The Evangels utilized their size to control the paint, doubling up the Ambassadors 40-20 inside the painted area as well as outrebounded OCC by a 41-33 margin.
• A major difference in the outcome came on MACU's floor game, as the Evangels recorded 11 assists to just 10 turnovers while Ozark Christian also tallied 11 dimes, but gave the ball away 19 times against MACU's aggressive defense.
• MACU nearly led wire-to-wire as the only OCC lead came at 9-8 with 13:25 to go in the first half.
• For the second straight game, Eddie Smith spearheaded the balanced MACU offensive efforts as six players scored nine or more points. Smith poured in 15 points on an efficient 7-of-15 from the field to go with four rebounds, four assists and four steals.
• Despite being kept in-check in the second half, Jasiah Lewis was the center piece of MACU's offensive efforts in the first half, scoring 10 of his 12 points in the opening 20 minutes on 5-of-8 shooting along with four boards and three assists.
• DeAngelo Adkins led MACU on the glass, narrowly missing a double-double after turning in 10 points on 5-of-12 from the floor to go with eight rebounds while defensively impacting the game with two steals and a pair of blocked shots.
• The victory for the Evangels marked their 10^th all-time against Ozark Christian, improving to 10-0 in the series since 2003. It was a defensively stronger performance for MACU in this year's outing after the Ambassadors gave MACU a scare in last season's meeting as the Evangels held on for a 105-100 win back on Oct. 29, 2022.

 
UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will now prepare for one of its toughest non-conference opponents on the docket for Tuesday, Nov. 7 as the Evangels will face Bethel (Kan.) for a 3:45 p.m. tip-off inside the Gaulke Activity Center.