BETHANY, Okla. – The MACU Men's Basketball team managed to grab a double-digit lead midway through the second half, but the Evangels were unable to hold onto it against a pesky Southwestern Christian squad as the Eagles rallied late to hand MACU a tough 75-72 defeat inside Pickens-Springer Gymnasium on Thursday night.
 
SCORE

• Southwestern Christian 75, Mid-America Christian 72
  • Mid-America Christian (5-1, 0-1 SAC)
  • Southwestern Christian (4-3, 1-1 SAC)

TOP PERFORMERS

• James Locke – 11 Points, 3-9 FG, 2-6 3FG, 3-6 FT, 6 Reb, 2 Assists
• Shannon Strickland – 11 Points, 3-10 FG, 4-4 FT, 5 Reb, 2 Blocks
• Morris Williams – 10 Points, 4-13 FG, 2-3 FT, 6 Reb, 3 Assists

GAME SUMMARY

• First Half
  • It was tough sledding for both teams offensively to start out the contest, but Southwestern Christian broke a 5-all tie with a Jordun Willard bucket before Elijah Garcia converted an old-fashioned three-point play to give SCU the 10-5 edge with 14:27 to go.
  • While a Demerius Shakur scoop-in layup briefly snapped the run, the Eagles countered with their biggest run of the contest, rattling off a 10-3 surge to seize their largest lead of the game at 20-10 another Willard bucket.
  • Just after the midway point, Zander Baker drained a huge three from the right wing with 9:57 on the clock to ignite a 14-3 MACU run that was ended on two Clance Crosby free throws with 4:43 left to give the Evangels the 24-23 lead.
  • An Aiden Todd bucket at the 4:27 mark briefly put the Eagles back in-front before Morris Williams took over with five-unanswered, including an and-one before a pair of Demetrus Shakur foul shots extended the Evangels' edge to 31-25 with 3:25 remaining.
  • SCU managed to eventually cut the MACU lead down to 36-34 on a Lukas Wooldridge layup with 1:14 left, but the Evangels scored four of the last six to hold a 40-36 edge heading into the halftime break.
• Second Half
  • A Corey Skillman trey from the right corner fired up a 9-2 MACU run to start the second half before Able Houston scored a fast break lay-in with 16:21 to go to extend the Evangels lead to 49-38.
  • The Evangels continued to control the pace over the next six minutes as the Eagles couldn't find a run against MACU before the Evangels captured their largest lead of the contest on Locke's backdoor cut and lay-in with 10:17 to go to make it a 62-48 contest.
  • With just under nine minutes left, Southwestern Christian started to chisel away at the MACU advantage, scoring eight unanswered to close it to a five-point game on JaColby Williams fastbreak lay-in off the MACU turnover with 6:27 remaining to make it 65-60.
  • A pair of Baker foul shots at the 5:44 mark finally snapped MACU's 3:22 scoring drought, but the Eagles continued to claw away, eventually taking their first lead since the 4:44 mark in the first half at 72-70 with 1:20 left on a pair of Lukas Wooldridge foul shots.
  • With 36 seconds left, Williams came up big for MACU by scoring the equalizing jumper, but an unfortunate loose ball foul with 23 seconds left allowed Williams for SCU to knock down one of two free throws and give SCU the lead back at 73-72.
  • The Evangels had a chance at a go-ahead bucket when Williams stepped back for a three from the left side, but it was just off the mark as the Evangels quickly fouled to send SCU back to the line with 13 seconds remaining.
  • MACU had one last opportunity when Willard missed both his foul shots, but a costly turnover by Baker just across the half-court stripe allowed Aiden Todd to score a last second layup to ultimately seal MACU's fate at 75-72.

GAME NOTES

• Mid-America Christian struggled mightily on the offensive end, shooting only 21-for-57 (36.8 percent) from the field and 6-of-21 (28.6 percent) from the three-point arc. However, the Evangels uncharacteristically had a rough night from the foul line as well, shooting a season-low 24-for-36 (66.7 percent).
• Despite a tough night from the three-point arc, shooting only 3-for-20 (15 percent), the Eagles were solid from everywhere else on the floor, knocking down 25-of-53 (47.2 percent) of their shots while SCU also had a tough evening from the stripe at 22-for-40 (55 percent).
• While both teams struggled to take care of the ball with the Eagles committing one more at 18-to-17, SCU was far more opportunistic with their takeaways, owning a decisive 23-12 lead in points off turnovers.
• On a tough shooting night for MACU, it was James Locke and Shannon Strickland that led the offensive efforts with 11 points apiece as Locke shot 3-for-9 from the field, 2-of-6 from three and 3-for-6 from the line to go with a team-high six rebounds and a pair of assists. Meanwhile, Strickland went 3-of-10 and 4-for-4 from the line to go with five rebounds and a pair of blocked shots.
• MACU's top offensive threat Morris Williams was contained for most of the evening as the Evangels held the star forward to only 10 points on 4-for-13 shooting while tying a team-high six boards and dished out a team-high three assists.
• Corey Skillman was MACU's most efficient scorer in limited opportunities, tallying eight points on 3-for-4 shooting, including 2-of-3 from downtown with four boards.
• The defeat was MACU's last since 2023 to Southwestern Christian when the Eagles handed MACU a tough 89-86 loss inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Jan. 16, 2023.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will need to prepare itself for another tough test against a crosstown foe on Saturday as the Evangels welcome in Oklahoma City for a 4 p.m. tip-off inside the Gaulke Activity Center.