OKLAHOMA CITY – Seventh-seeded Texas Wesleyan gave the No. 2 seed MACU men's basketball team a tough fight in the first half, but the Evangels made some stellar second half adjustments as the Evangels ran away with a 79-56 victory over the Rams in the Sooner Athletic Conference Quarterfinal inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Thursday night.
 
TOP PERFORMERS

• Magok Manyang – 16 Points, 4-8 FG, 3-6 3FG, 5-7 FT, 10 Reb, 3 Blocks
• Jasiah Lewis – 14 Points, 4-9 FG, 5-6 FT, 7 Assists, 4 Reb, 2 Steals
• Seth Hurd – 14 Points, 4-8 FG, 6-8 FT, 3 Reb
• Quentin Woodson – 12 Points, 6-6 FG, 2 Reb
• DeAngelo Adkins – 11 Points, 4-6 FG, 3-4 3FG, 8 Reb

GAME SUMMARY

• First Half
  • Both teams battled back-and-forth through the first seven minutes with neither team gaining larger than a two-possession lead as Mid-America Christian (22-7) gained its largest lead of the stretch on two Seth Hurd foul shots with 13:08 left to set the score to 14-10.
  • Texas Wesleyan (12-17) made a five-point run toward the midway point to take back a 15-14 edge with 10:52 to go, but MACU countered with five-unanswered of its own as Magok Manyang buried a tightly contested three from the top of the key to make it a 19-15 edge back with MACU with 10:05 remaining.
  • TWU battled back to tie it on four more occasions over the next seven minutes, the last coming on a pair of Richard Amaefuele throws with 3:38 left, but were never able to take the lead back from the Evangels.
  • Mid-America Christian scored the next seven, grabbing its largest lead of the half at 35-28 on another Manyang long ball from the left corner with just under two minutes to go.
  • The Rams scored five of the final six to close the gap to 36-33 at the half on Kipplyn Richvine's long range three from the right wing at the buzzer.
• Second Half
  • Texas Wesleyan managed to keep it close over the first two-and-a-half minutes as a pair of Adetokunbo Bakare free throws closed it to 38-35 at the 17:35 mark but the Evangels responded with an offensive barrage as MACU scored eight-straight over a one-minute stretch as Manyang's hoop-and-harm was followed up by a Jasiah Lewis cold-blooded three from the right wing to set the score to 46-35 with 16:38 to go.
  • A Bakare triple with 14:45 remaining closed it back to a 48-40 game, but that would be the closest the Rams would cut into the MACU advantage the rest of the night as the Evangels responded with 11-unanswered with DeAngelo Adkins putting one back off the offensive board to bring it to 59-40 with 11:51 left.
  • The Rams tried to make a run to get back in the game as TWU scored seven of the next eight to close it to 60-47 on Richvine's bucket with just under 10 minutes on the clock.
  • Mid-America Christian imposed its will on TWU over the final 10 minutes as the Evangels outscored the Rams 19-9 the rest of the way as MACU captured its largest lead of the game on final score with Quentin Woodson laying it in with 38 seconds left to wrap-up the 79-56 final.

GAME NOTES

• Even though it was a cold shooting night from three for Mid-America Christian, going just 7-for-25 (28 percent) from range, the Evangels were extremely effective everywhere else as MACU finished 28-of-59 (47.5 percent) and knocked down 16-for-22 (72.7 percent) from the free throw line.
• MACU's defense frustrated Texas Wesleyan into shooting only 17-for-45 (37.8 percent), including 5-of-19 (26.3 percent) from three and finished 17-for-23 (73.9 percent) from the charity stripe.
• The Evangels dominated the glass, outrebounding the Rams 41-29 with a 15-8 edge on the offensive glass. MACU was also defensively able to force TWU into giving it away 15 times while the Evangels committed just nine turnovers.
• After hitting a cold spell from three-point range in the month of February, Magok Manyang found his mojo from behind the arc over the last two games as he finished with a team-high 16 points on 4-of-8 shooting while going 3-for-6 from three and also knocked down 5-of-7 from the line. The junior forward also notched his third double-double of the season after pulling down a game-high 10 rebounds and also notched three blocked shots.
• Jasiah Lewis continued to dazzle as both a scorer and a distributor, finishing with 14 points on 4-of-9 from the field and 5-for-6 from the line while tallying seven assists to just two giveaways.
• Despite battling foul trouble the entire night, senior forward Seth Hurd still managed to finish with 14 points on 4-of-8 from the floor and 6-for-8 from the stripe in only 16 minutes of action.
• Quentin Woodson provided a big time spark off the bench, scoring 12 points on a perfect 6-of-6 shooting while DeAngelo Adkins narrowly missed a double-double in his own right with 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting, including 3-for-4 from three to go with eight rebounds.
• With the victory, Mid-America Christian went 3-0 against Texas Wesleyan during the 2023-24 season after getting a 59-51 win inside the Sid Richardson Center on Dec. 7 before coming away with a 63-54 win in the Gaulke on Feb. 1. MACU has now won six-straight games against the Rams.
• The win also propels MACU to its fourth appearance in the SAC Semifinal round in the last six years as the Evangels will be seeking another trip to the SAC Championship game after reaching the title tilt in the 2020-21 campaign.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will be just a little over a week removed from a rematch with No. 6 seed John Brown (Ark.) in the SAC Semifinal Round as the Evangels will battle the Golden Eagles inside the Sid Richardson Center in Fort Worth, Texas at 3 p.m. on Monday, Mar. 4.