SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. – The MACU men's basketball team continued to build its strong postseason portfolio as the Evangels rallied in the second half for another pivotal 84-79 road win at John Brown inside Bill George Arena on Saturday.
 
TOP PERFORMERS

• Seth Hurd – 20 Points, 10-16 FG, 4 Reb
• Eddie Smith – 13 Points, 3-4 FG, 6-6 FT, 4 Reb, 3 Assists
• Jasiah Lewis – 10 Points, 3-5 FG, 3-4 FT, 5 Assists, 2 Steals

GAME SUMMARY

• First Half
  • After John Brown (15-12, 13-9 SAC) opened the game on a Malachi Reeves three and Mid-America Christian (21-7, 17-5 SAC) followed suit with a Seth Hurd jumper on the Evangels' first possession, it was a low scoring defensive grinder through the first seven minutes. MACU gained some separation when Mikel Henderson knocked down a midrange jumper from the left elbow to give the Evangels the lead before Conner Calavan got open in the right corner for a three to make it 14-10 with 12:48 left.
  • JBU's Drew Miller nailed a triple of his own on the following possession, the Evangels put together a 9-2 to take its largest lead of the half on Hurd's left block baby hook from Jasiah Lewis' return pass, making it a 23-15 game with 9:42 to go.
  • After a Zalek Sharp steal and fastbreak lay-in to push it back to an eight-point game with 7:13 on the clock, John Brown caught fire by stringing together a 13-point scoring surge as Miller three-ball with 4:31 remaining gave JBU the 30-25 advantage.
  • While a Quentin Woodson layup and a Lewis free throw managed to knock the edge down to three, the Golden Eagles swung back by scoring seven of the next eight to take their largest lead of the contest at 37-29 on another Miller triple at the 1:40 mark.
  • Mid-America Christian managed to recapture the momentum just before the halftime break as the Evangels scored seven of the final nine with Magok Manyang scoring five of the seven, the last coming on a buzzer-beating three from the top of the key to close it to 39-36 heading into the half.
• Second Half
  • Leading for most of the first half, MACU managed to take back their advantage following a pair of Hurd buckets to set the score to 40-39 with 17:44 remaining.
  • The next four minutes saw the lead exchange hands four times before the Evangels gained some slight separation on Calavan's three following a ball fake in the left corner to make it a 52-47 edge.
  • The midway portion of the half turned into a back-and-forth heavyweight offensive slugfest with the two teams trading leads five times as another Calavan three-ball from the left corner put MACU back in-front at 65-63.
  • John Brown did make one last push to briefly take back a two-point edge on Miller's jumper in the paint at the 5:06 mark, but the Evangels recaptured the advantage for good with an 11-2 run that saw Lewis bury a tough contested three-pointer to beat the shot clock and another Smith buzzer-beating spin move jumper that set the score to 78-71 with 1:28 to go.
  • The Evangels maintained their seven-point edge on two Lewis foul shots at the 41-second mark, but JBU made things interesting late when Reeves knocked down a pair of free throws before Miller got a steal on the inbound and buried a three to close it to 80-77 with 30 seconds left.
  • However, JBU would not be able to climb any closer the rest of the way as Smith put the game away from the foul line by going 4-for-4 from the stripe to ultimately secure the 84-79 win.

GAME NOTES

• Mid-America Christian did most of its damage from both the paint and the free throw line as the Evangels finished the contest shooting a highly efficient 28-of-54 (51.9 percent) with 42 points coming from the painted area while knocking down just 8-for-22 (36.4 percent) from three. Overall, MACU put together one of its best performances of the season from the charity stripe, going 20-for-24 (83.3 percent).
• The Evangels forced John Brown to do most of its work from behind the arc as JBU finished 29-of-68 (42.6 percent), going 13-for-35 (37.1 percent) from three while converting on just 8-of-14 (57.1 percent) from the line.
• The Golden Eagles did hold the 37-31 rebounding advantage over MACU with a 16-7 edge on the offensive glass. However, JBU was unable to capitalize on most of its second chances with just an 11-6 lead in second chance points.
• MACU's offensive balance gave JBU problems as even though MACU had just three players finish in double-figures, seven players finished with eight or points.
• Seth Hurd led MACU's offensive efforts with 20 points on 10-of-16 shooting while Eddie Smith and Jasiah Lewis provided a spark offensively off the bench with 13 points and 10 points respectively.
• Overall, MACU's bench greatly outperformed JBU's with a 44-11 advantage in bench scoring as Conner Calavan and Quentin Woodson chipped in nine and eight points respectively.
• DeAngelo Adkins led MACU's rebounding efforts with seven boards while Lewis continued his incredibly reliable point guard play with an impressive 5-to-1 assist-turnover ratio. With his five-assist day, Lewis continued to climb up MACU's NAIA Era (2007-present) single season record book for dimes as he now sits in seventh with 125 on the year.
• With the victory, the Evangels swept the season series with John Brown after defeating the Golden Eagles 70-54 inside the Gaulke Activity Center back on Jan. 13.
• MACU wraps up the regular season with a 21-7 overall record and posting its second-best ever record in Sooner Athletic Conference play at 17-5, sitting only behind the 2019-20 squad that went 30-2 overall and 19-1 against SAC competition.

UP NEXT

• Entering the SAC Tournament as the No. 2 seed, the Evangels will host No. 7 seed Texas Wesleyan at 8 p.m. inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Thursday.