OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mid-America Christian men's basketball team continued its phenomenal play on the road on Thursday night as the Evangels walked into Abe Lemons Arena and came away with a 79-65 victory over Oklahoma City.
 
TOP PERFORMERS

• Mikel Henderson – 20 Points, 7-15 FG, 3-7 3FG, 3-3 FT, 4 Reb
• DeAngelo Adkins – 13 Points, 5-10 FG, 2-5 3FG, 7 Reb, 4 Steals, 2 Blocks
• Seth Hurd – 11 Points, 3-6 FG, 5-7 FT, 2 Reb, 2 Steals
• Magok Manyang – 10 Points, 2-5 FG, 5-6 FT, 8 Reb, 3 Blocks, 2 Assists

GAME SUMMARY

• First Half
  • Both teams were ice cold to start the game with neither team scoring through the first few minutes before Oklahoma City (3-11, 1-7 SAC) finally broke into the scoring column with a pair of Brandon Jackson free throws with 17:37 left.
  • Mid-America Christian (9-5, 5-3 SAC) got on the board in an unconventional way when DeAngelo Adkins picked Yorgio Golesis' pocket off an OCU defense board for an easy lay-in before getting another steal of Golesis for a fastbreak layup on the ensuing possession. The Evangels put together a 10-3 run before doubling up their lead at 10-5 on a pair of Eddie Smith free throws with 13:50 to go.
  • OCU's Avery Jackson scored five of the next six with a three-point play and a pair of free throws to close it to a one-point game before Magok Manyang buried a corner three and Eylan Goodwyn executed a sensational ball fake to get his defender in the air and scoring an open layup to extend the edge to 16-10 with 11 minutes to go.
  • Through the midway point in the half, the Stars strung together a 9-1 run to take their final lead of the contest at 19-17 on a Brandon Jackson midrange jumper from the right elbow with 8:41 on the clock.
  • Over the next three-and-a-half minutes, MACU found its offensive stride, putting together a massive 16-3 run before taking its first double-digit lead on a Mikel Henderson step-back three at the top of the key to make it 33-22 with just over five minutes remaining.
  • OCU scored the next five over the following minute to close it to a six-point contest, but the Evangels swung back with a 12-4 run capped off on Henderson's fastbreak lay-in with 20 seconds left, taking their largest lead of the half at 45-31 before a pair of Golesis foul shots made it a 45-33 game at the break.
• Second Half
  • Much like the first half, both teams were ice cold through the first four-and-a-half minute with both teams combining to score six points before a Quentin Woodson layup in the low block at the 15:12 mark ignited a nine-unanswered Evangels run as a Goodwyn foul shot with 12:48 left gave MACU its largest lead of the contest at 58-35.
  • A Nick Bonifay fadeaway right corner three off an inbound pass on the ensuing possession ignited a massive 17-3 OCU run over the next four minutes as a slam dunk by Jack McWilliams with 8:55 left gave the Stars their last single-digit deficit at 61-52.
  • With just under eight minutes left, Seth Hurd recovered his own miss and tapped it in to start an 11-2 MACU streak over the next six minutes as another strong Hurd finish in the paint with 1:51 remaining extended the MACU advantage to 72-54.
  • OCU's Brandon Jackson caught fire from beyond the arc in the final minute, nailing a trio of three-pointers over the final 42 seconds, but it was too little, too late as MACU was able to come away with the 79-65 win.

GAME NOTES

• Mid-America Christian was the far more efficient team on the offensive end as MACU finished 26-for-61 (42.6 percent) from the field while knocking down 7-of-22 (31.8 percent) from three and converted on 20-of-30 (66.7 percent) of its foul shots.
• Defensively, MACU held Oklahoma City to just 20-of-61 (32.8 percent) shooting, including 8-for-26 (30.8 percent) from three and converted on an efficient 17-of-23 (73.9 percent) free throw attempts.
• Even though OCU won the rebounding battle by a slight 43-40 edge, the Evangels were able to force the Stars into 16 turnovers while MACU committed just 10 for the contest, holding a massive 27-6 edge in points off turnovers.
• For the second straight game, Mikel Henderson led MACU's offensive efforts with a season-high 20 points on 7-of-15 shooting, going 3-for-7 from beyond the arc and 3-of-3 from the line to go with three boards.
• DeAngelo Adkins made a massive impact defensively for MACU with 13 points on 5-of-10 from the field and 2-for-5 from three to go with seven boards, a team-high four steals and a pair of blocked shots.
• Seth Hurd turned in an 11-point game on 3-of-6 from the floor and 5-for-7 from the stripe with two boards and two steals while Magok Manyang rounded out the double-digit scoring with 10 points on 2-for-5 shooting, going 5-of-6 from the line to go with a team-high eight boards, three blocked shots and a pair of assists.
• While OCU's top scorer Brandon Jackson finished with a game-high 23 points, the Evangels were able to defensively clamp down on the Stars second and third-best scorers coming in as Avery Jackson finished with just seven points on 1-of-9 shooting five of his points coming from the charity stripe while Yorgio Golesis was kept to only two points on 0-of-7 from the field and a pair of free throws.
• The Evangels snapped OCU's two-game win streak after the Stars swept the season series last year. However, after last year's road meeting was moved to Redlands Community College due to a pipe burst in Abe Lemons Arena last season, the Evangels were glad to be back in the venue as MACU has now won four-straight in the Stars' home court.
• With the win, Mid-America Christian improved to 5-1 in road games this season, including winning the last three after getting a 59-51 win over Texas Wesleyan inside the Sid Richardson Center in Fort Worth, Texas on Dec. 7 before getting a massive 99-64 victory at Southwestern Christian inside Pickens-Springer Gymnasium on Monday.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will be back at home on Saturday as the Evangels will host one of the top teams in the Sooner Athletic Conference in John Brown for a 3:45 p.m. tip-off.