GREENVILLE, S.C. – The National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) announced its 2022-23 Men's Basketball All-Central Region Team on Monday as three members of the MACU men's basketball team were selected to the esteemed list.
Junior forward Seth Hurd headlined the honorees by earning First Team accolades while redshirt sophomore guards DaRaun Clark and Eylan Goodwyn were tabbed to the Second Team.
In his first season with the Evangels, Hurd was the team's most efficient scorer, averaging 11.1 points per game while shooting a team-best 54.1 percent from the field while also tallying the squad's second-most rebounds (124, 4.8 rpg) while also tallying 47 assists and 17 blocked shots on the defensive end.
The 6-6 forward from Tulsa, Okla. posted his best game of the season near the end of the campaign when he scored 30 points on 13-of-19 shooting from the field, the seventh-most made field goals in a single game since the program joined the NAIA in 2007 to go with nine rebounds and five assists in a 101-96 overtime loss at John Brown (Ark.) on Feb. 16.
In the latter half of the season, Hurd notched three double-double performances, including a 24-point, 11-rebound effort in an 82-72 win over Central Christian on Jan. 21, a 18-point, 10-board game in an 82-79 victory over Oklahoma Panhandle State on Jan. 28 and a 20-point, 11-rebound contest in a 70-68 overtime win at UNT Dallas on Feb. 9.
Another newcomer to the Evangels program in 2022-23, Clark posted some stellar offensive numbers by leading the team in scoring average at 13.9 ppg on a 39.5 percent shooting clip while leading the team in free throw shooting, knocking down 92-of-119 for 77.3 percent conversion rate. Clark also finished the season with 81 rebounds (3.5 rpg) and 29 assists while finishing second on the team in steals with 23.
Clark found himself in the MACU record books in his first game with the Evangels. Pouring in a career-high 32 points in a 107-98 win over Kansas Christian at the Paycom Center on Oct. 27, the 6-6 guard from San Antonio buried 15-of-17 free throws, tying Charlie Shorter for the most made shots from the charity stripe in the NAIA Era while matching Semar Farris and Isaiah Hammons for the third-most free throw attempts in a single game.
Putting up another 30-point performance in an 86-83 win at Texas Wesleyan on Jan. 2, Clark once again found himself in the record book when he went 14-for-14 from the foul line, joining Shorter as the only players to attempt more than 10 free throws in a game and make all 100-percent of their tries.
Clark ended his 2022-23 campaign on a high note in a 79-72 home loss to Oklahoma City in the season finale inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Feb. 18. Despite shooting just 2-for-7 from three, Clark knocked down 8-of-9 shots from inside the perimeter to go with 5-of-6 from the line to finish with 27 points.
Rounding out the honorees, Goodwyn was by far and away the most improved player returning from the 2021-22 season. After competing in just seven games as a freshman, the Gladewater, Texas native finished the 2022-23 campaign as the team's leading scorer with 353 points (13.1 ppg) on a strong 48 percent shooting, including 35.4 percent from three and 76 percent from the free throw line.
The 6-4 guard also finished third on the squad in rebounding (103, 3.8 rpg) while also recording 13 blocked shots on the defensive end.
Goodwyn was especially playing his best basketball over the final month of the season as he averaged a team-best 18.5 ppg on 49.4 percent shooting from the field, 48.5 percent from three and 75 percent from the free throw line over MACU's six games played in the month of February.
Goodwyn's best game as an Evangel came in a career-high 31-point performance in an 80-79 win over Texas Wesleyan on Feb. 4 as he shot a blistering 11-of-14 from the floor and went 4-for-5 from three-point range.
When the game was on the line, Goodwyn was a clutch performer for the Evangels. In a 72-69 road win at Bethel (Kan.) on Dec. 16, Goodwyn knocked down the go-ahead floating jumper in the lane with 17.7 seconds left. He came up with another clutch bucket in an 82-79 win over Oklahoma Panhandle State on Jan. 28 when he scooped in the game-winning layup with 2.2 seconds remaining.
