FORT WORTH, Texas – The MACU men's basketball team gave top-seeded and nationally second-ranked Langston one of its toughest battles of the season in the Sooner Athletic Conference Championship game, but the Evangels were unable to slow down the Lions in the second half in a 55-44 defeat inside the Sid Richardson Center on the campus of Texas Wesleyan University on Tuesday night.
 
TOP PERFORMERS

• Seth Hurd – 16 Points, 5-11 FG, 6-6 FT, 3 Reb
• Magok Manyang – 8 Points, 2-4 FG, 3-4 FT, 9 Reb, 3 Blocks
• Eddie Smith – 7 Points, 3-9 FG, 4 Reb, 3 Steals

GAME SUMMARY

• First Half
  • Mid-America Christian (23-8) took the early lead in a defensive slugfest on Magok Manyang's left-corner three before Seth Hurd ball-faked a defender for an open right-handed lay-in to set the score to 5-0 with 17:33 left.
  • Langston (30-1) finally broke into the scoring column against MACU's feisty defense at the 14:32 mark as a pair of D'Monte Brown layups closed it to a one-point game with just over 14 minutes remaining.
  • The Evangels defense once again stymied the Lions over a six-minute stretch, holding Langston scoreless while rattling off seven unanswered as Manyang finished the run with the fast-break lay-in with 9:03 to go, giving MACU its largest lead of the game at 12-4.
  • MACU struggled to slow down the SAC Player of the Year Anthony Roy as the Lions star guard scored three consecutive buckets before a Ronald Mitchell right-wing three with 4:11 on the clock gave Langston its first lead of the contest at 13-12.
  • After being held scoreless over a five-minute stretch, MACU finally got on the board with a Quentin Woodson free throw to tie it up at 13-all before Tarrence Gaines knocked down a foul shot to give MACU its final lead of the contest at 14-13 with 2:43 left.
  • A Toru Dean midrange jumper at the 2:25 mark would be the last score for either team in the opening 20 minutes as Langston carried the 15-14 lead into the halftime break.
• Second Half
  • With the two teams being even through the first two minutes, Langston captured the momentum on a Majok Kuath layup before Dean drained a three from the left corner to extend the Langston edge to 23-17 with 17:39 to go.
  • The Evangels fought back to close it to a one-point game at 25-24 after scoring seven of the next nine on a pair of Seth Hurd buckets before Eddie Smith drained a key from the top of the key with 13:38 left.
  • The Lions extended their lead out to seven points nearing the midway point after stringing together a 9-2 run capped off on Cortez Mosley's foul shot with 10:03 remaining.
  • While MACU was able to knock the Lions' edge down to five on Hurd's open left-block layup from Smith's dime, the Lions rattled off seven of the next nine points to grab their first double-digit lead at 48-38 at the 3:49 mark on Kuath's and-one bucket.
  • The Evangels managed to chip it down to a two-possession game on Jasiah Lewis' nifty step-through mid-range runner with 2:31 left to make it a 49-43 game.
  • However, MACU struggled to find answers against Langston's tough defense down the stretch as the Lions pulled away with the 55-44 win.

GAME NOTES

• It was tough sledding for the Mid-America Christian offense as the Evangels shot 12-of-37 (32.4 percent) from the field and just 3-for-20 (20 percent) from three-point range while knocking down 17-of-24 (70.8 percent) from the free throw line.
• Despite holding Langston to just 23.3 percent shooting in the second half, the Lions shot 50 percent in the second half to finish 21-for-58 (36.2 percent) from the floor, but only 5-of-23 (21.7 percent) from three while converting 8-of-13 (61.5 percent) of their foul shots.
• Defensively, MACU held Langston to its season-low point total at 55 points, marking just the second time the Lions scored less than 69 points this year.
• Ball security played an impact down the stretch for the Evangels as MACU committed 15 turnovers while the Lions gave it away only six times to hold a 17-1 lead in points off takeaways.
• In the low-scoring affair, only two players for both teams combined finished in double-figures as Langston's Anthony Roy scored a game-high 25 points while Seth Hurd paced the Evangels with 16 points on 5-of-11 shooting while going 6-for-6 from the free throw line to go with three boards.
• Magok Manyang narrowly missed recording his third-straight double-double in the SAC Tournament, finishing the contest with eight points and pulled down nine boards to go with three blocked shots. With those three rejections, Manyang has tallied 46 on the season, moving him into fourth on MACU's NAIA Era (2007-present) single season blocked shots list, putting him just three away from Chris Runnels (2014-15).
• As a result of their postseason efforts, Hurd and Manyang were both selected to the SAC All-Tournament Team.
• By making it to the SAC Championship game, the Evangels earned an automatic berth to the NAIA Tournament, locking up the program's seventh appearance in the postseason tourney. MACU's last appearance came during the 2021-22 campaign when the Evangels went 20-12 during the regular season while notching three wins against teams ranked in the NAIA Top 10.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will now await to see where they will compete as the NAIA Tournament Selection Show will be held on Thursday, Mar. 7 at 6 p.m. on the NAIA's YouTube channel. The First Round of the NAIA tourney will be held on Friday, Mar. 15.