WICHITA, Kan. – After leading for most of the contest, the MACU men's basketball team found itself in a dogfight late against No. 7 seed Hastings but with the Broncos having an opportunity at a potential game-winner at the buzzer, the Evangels forced one of the best players in the country to throw up an airball to secure the 68-67 victory inside the Garvey Center on Friday night.
 
TOP PERFORMERS

• Seth Hurd – 16 Points, 8-9 FG, 3 Reb, 2 Assists, 2 Steals
• Mikel Henderson – 16 Points, 5-9 FG, 2-4 3FG, 4-4 FT
• Jasiah Lewis – 14 Points, 5-8 FG, 2-3 3FG, 2-2 FT, 4 Reb, 2 Assists

GAME SUMMARY

• First Half
  • After conceding the opening bucket on the Broncos' first possession, Mid-America Christian (24-8) quickly captured the momentum when Seth Hurd buried back-to-back buckets on a strong post move and a baseline jumper before Mikel Henderson gave the Evangels the 7-2 advantage after getting the hoop and the harm with a strong take down the left side with 17:46 to go.
  • Hastings (23-9) cut it to a three-point game at 11-8 on a Nolan Sughroue three from the right corner at the 14:30 mark, but the Evangels quickly recaptured the momentum when an excellent post feed to Magok Manyang in the left low block allowed the big to finish on the reverse lay-in before Eddie Smith extended the edge to 16-8 on a fadeaway mid-range jumper and drawing the foul with 13:30 left.
  • While the game got out to a torrid pace offensively through the first six-and-a-half minutes, fortunes changed for both teams over the next six minutes as both teams combined for seven points during the stretch with the Broncos making it an 18-13 game on Danilo Matovic's spin move and reverse layup with 7:40 remaining.
  • After Smith split a double team for a wide-open lay-in with just over five minutes to go, HC held MACU scoreless over the next three-and-a-half minutes as the Broncos eventually whittled the Evangels' edge down to 22-20 on Tyrique McMurtin's foul shot at the 1:57 mark.
  • The final 90 seconds was a back-and-forth offensive slugfest as big buckets by Hurd and Jasiah Lewis were answered by Hastings going 4-for-4 from the foul line. It looked as the though the Evangels were going to head into the locker room with the momentum when Smith took advantage of a broken play by beating his defender down the right lane for a shot clock beating layup with 10.7 seconds to go.
  • However, Hastings managed to cut MACU's advantage down to 28-27 heading into the break when Grady Corrigan got open on the left wing and buried a buzzer-beating three.
• Second Half
  • Trailing for only 19 seconds in the first half, Mid-America Christian found itself down early to start the second half when a pair of scores by Matovic and Corrigan put the Broncos up by three on their first two possessions before Lewis snapped MACU's cold spell from downtown by rattling in a tightly contested three from the top of the key with 18:30 to go to tie it at 31-31.
  • After just one lead change in the first half, the two teams experienced four lead changes over the next two minutes, but Mikel Henderson's four-point play during a stretch when MACU made five-straight three-pointers jumpstarted a nine-unanswered Evangels surged capped on DeAngelo Adkins split through the double team for the fastbreak runner to set the score to 46-38 with 14:55 left.
  • Hastings and MACU went blow-for-blow over the next three minutes before a Henderson left-hand layup preceded a tough low block bucket for Hurd with 11:05 remaining to give the Evangels their first double-digit lead of the game at 54-44.
  • The Broncos knocked their deficit back to single-digits at the midway point on Corrigan's and-one bucket, but two more huge Hurd scores led to Lewis giving MACU its largest lead of the game by blowing by his defender for an easy left-handed layup to bring to a 62-49 game at the 8:20 mark.
  • Mid-America Christian went cold over the next 3:30 as Hastings managed to knock the edge down to 62-56, but Tarrence Gaines picked a great time for his first score of the game when he corralled his own miss on a midrange jumper before finishing with the hoop and the harm with 4:52 to go.
  • HC continued to slowly chip away at MACU's advantage as the Evangels struggled to find some consistency on the offensive end as a pair of Matovic free throws brought it to a four-point game before Henderson knocked down a pair of clutch throws with 54 seconds left to extend the lead back to 68-62.
  • However, Hastings was able to capitalize off a couple of MACU mistakes as an offensive board by the Broncos resulted in an Evangels foul as Corrigan knocked down the pair before a costly turnover on the inbound pass allowed Corrigan to curl off a screen and knock down a right-wing three to close it to a one-point game at 68-67 with 40 seconds to go.
  • MACU melted as much clock as it could on its final offensive possession as Conner Calavan came up empty on his open three-point try from the right wing, which allowed Hastings to get one last potential buzzer beater up.
  • However, the Evangels defense was up to the task as the Broncos brought the ball up quickly as a double-team off a screen switch on Reggie Thomas allowed Hurd to force the Great Plains Athletic Conference Player of the Year into a tightly contested fadeaway jumper that was airballed at the buzzer, securing the 68-67 victory.

GAME NOTES

• In a gritty defensive battle, Mid-America Christian was extremely efficient in its offensive possessions as the Evangels shot 27-for-53 (50.9 percent) from the field and after going 0-for-6 from three in the first half, MACU gunned down 5-of-12 (41.7 percent) from three in the second half while efficiently converting on 9-for-10 (90 percent) from the charity stripe.
• Facing off against a Hastings team that ranks 14^th in the NAIA in field goal efficiency at 50.4 percent, the Evangels held the Broncos to just 24-of-61 (39.3 percent) from the floor and a season-worst 3-for-14 (21.4 percent) from downtown. HC managed to keep pace with MACU due to shooting 16-for-21 (76.2 percent) from the foul stripe.
• Uncharacteristically, the Evangels were outrebounded in the contest 34-32 with a 13-6 edge on the offensive glass while the Broncos also won the turnover battle by getting 10 takeaways while committing just four giveaways in a very clean offensive display for both squads.
• Going up against the second-best scorer in the NAIA in Reggie Thomas (24.5 ppg), the Evangels completely shut down the sophomore guard as Thomas finished with a season-low 10 points on 4-of-16 shooting while going 0-for-6 from three-point range.
• The Sooner Athletic's second-most prolific shooter in Seth Hurd put together one of his most efficient games of the season as the Tulsa, Oklahoma native poured in 16 points on 8-of-9 shooting while finishing with three boards, two assists and two steals.
• Mikel Henderson also had a strong game offensively for MACU as he also tallied 16 points on 5-of-9 from the field, including 2-for-4 from three-point range and converted on 4-of-4 foul shots while Jasiah Lewis rounded out MACU's double-digit scorers with 14 points on 5-for-8, going 2-of-3 from three with four rebounds and a pair of dimes.
• Eddie Smith was the most productive player off either team's bench, closing out the contest with nine points with three rebounds and a team-best three assists.
• Competing in their sixth NAIA Tournament in the last 10 years, the sixth under current MACU head coach Josh Gamblin, the victory marked the fifth time in those six appearances that the Evangels won their first-round game.
• The Evangels remained undefeated against Hastings in just their second-ever meeting after defeating the Broncos 86-84 inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Dec. 18, 2010.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will renew an old rivalry in the second-round contest inside the Garvey Center on Saturday as the Evangels will battle No. 2 seed and nationally fifth-ranked Oklahoma Wesleyan for a 6 p.m. tip-off for the right to advance to Kansas City.