Mid-America Christian University

OKLAHOMA CITY – The MACU Men's basketball team put up a strong shooting performance outscoring the SCU Eagles 74-62 inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Thursday night. Although the Eagles put up 12 three-balls, the Evangels countered going 29-for-61 (47.5 percent) to capture the victory.

TOP PERFORMERS

• Juwan White – 19 Points, 7-12 FG, 7 Reb, 5 Ast, 3 Stl
• Josiah Fulcher – 17 Points, 7-17 FG, 4 Reb, 3 Ast, 2 Stl, 1 Blk
• Zander Baker – 12 Points, 5-6 FG, 2-3 3PM, 2 Reb, 1 Ast

 
GAME SUMMARY

• First Half
  • Southwestern Christian (4-8, 2-6 SAC) started off strong from the field with Deondre Dunn connecting on three of four shots to provide an early 7-4 lead to SCU. Mid-America Christian (7-3, 4-3 SAC) responded with a 7-0 run that lasted five minutes and 45 seconds capped off on a layup by Quentin Woodson.
  • The teams continued to trade blows as the Eagles brought it back to a two-possession game, with the shot clock winding down Dunn maintained his flame draining a three from the right elbow to cut MACU's lead to 22-18 with 7:49 to go.
  • A 7-0 Evangels surge sparked after Dunn's trey which included a pair of buckets from Juwan White including a three-ball off Josiah Fulcher's feed brought the Evangels up double-digits 29-18.
  • After exchanging buckets for the next 4:34 Marque Wilkerson connected for a corner-three on Zander Baker's dish to bring the lead back up to 10 with 1:34 remaining.
  • Dunn struck for another layup plus the foul to climb up to 24 points in the half, however the Evangels closed out the half with a Magok Manyang triple from the top of the arc to take a 40-30 lead into the break.
• Second Half
  • :36 seconds in White connected once again, this time coming on a step-back three-pointer from the left elbow to extend the Evangels lead to 43-31.
  • The Eagles threatened putting up five unanswered, but a turnaround lay in by Tarrence Gaines to knock down a layup to shut down the run and bring MACU up 45-36 with 17:17 left in the contest.
  • After going basket-for-basket over the next near four minutes, the Evangels climbed back up to a double-digit lead on Baker's triple on the assist from Woodson to take a 52-40 lead with 13:40 to play.  
  • MACU outscored SCU 10-7 over the next 5:01 that featured a slight 6-0 run capped off on a coast-to-coast layup by White to provide the largest lead of the game up 62-47.
  • The final 8:39 had a precise exchange of bucket-for-bucket with the Eagles putting up all five of their shots behind the arc, but it was not enough as the Evangels added five buckets of their own with Woodson wrapping it up on an and-one layup with 1:30 remaining to provide a 74-62 victory.

GAME NOTES

• Mid-America Christian University outshot Southwestern Christian going 29-for-61 (47.5 percent) compared to the Eagles 22-of-57 (38.6 percent). Although SCU knocked went 12-of-29 from three, the Evangels had a plus-five mark on rebounds, free throws made, and steals.
• A mark of 47.5 percent from the field marked the second highest in conference play this season with only a 51.7 percent slash against Central Christian on Nov. 18.   
• Juwan White had a phenomenal night as he tied his career highs in points (19) and set career highs with 12 shots attempted, seven rebounds, and three steals. White also led the contest in assists with five.
• Josiah Fulcher put up 17 points on 7-for-17 shooting with four boards, three dimes, two steals, and a block.
• Redshirt freshman Zander Baker had a tremendous night coming off the bench setting a career high in points with twelve, he shot 5-of-6 from the field including 2-of-3 from three.
• Three blocks for Magok Manyang were the most he has put up in a game this season and is the second time this season he has had multiple rejections in a contest.
• Despite a strong shooting performance by Deondre Dunn who had a season high 29 points, the Evangels made a great in game adjustment limiting him to just five points in the second half after he put up a whooping 24 in the first.
• With the win MACU slides to 29-13 since the 2003 season while extending its win streak to three in the process.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will head up the road Saturday, Dec. 14 to take on SAC foe Oklahoma City with a tip-off set for 4 p.m. inside the Abe Lemons Arena.