SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. – Despite the warm temperatures outside, the MACU Men's Basketball team went cold in the second half inside Bill George Arena as the Evangels fell at John Brown 82-68 on Thursday night.
 
SCORE

• John Brown 82, Mid-America Christian 68
  • Mid-America Christian (7-3, 2-3 SAC)
  • John Brown (8-3, 5-1 SAC)

TOP PERFORMERS

• Morris Williams – 20 Points, 8-15 FG, 2-4 3FG, 2-4 FT, 3 Steals, 2 Reb, 2 Assists
• Clay Baldwin – 15 Points, 6-9 FG, 3-3 FT
• Corey Skillman – 10 Points, 4-9 FG, 2-6 3FG, 3 Reb, 3 Steals
• Clance Crosby – 8 Points, 4-7 FG, 4 Reb, 2 Assists

GAME SUMMARY

• First Half
  • Mid-America Christian opened the contest by scoring the first five points as Corey Skillman drained a long three from the left wing before John Brown countered by scoring eight of the next 11 to tie it at 8-8 on Donovan Lovelace's three-ball with 16:42 left.
  • While Morris Williams buried a trey to briefly give MACU an 11-8 edge, the Golden Eagles scored the next five on a pair of Trae Oetting free throws and another Lovelace long ball from the right wing to make it a 13-11 Golden Eagles' edge at the 15:16 mark.
  • Another Skillman long ball with just over 15 minutes left ignited a solid 11-3 capped off on a strong Corey Baldwin take down the lane and lay-in to extend the MACU lead to 22-16 with 11:46 remaining.
  • After Baldwin finished off an old-fashioned three-point play to give the Evangels their largest lead of the half at 28-21 with 10:32 to go, the Golden Eagles rattled off an 8-0 run over the next two minutes to take back a 29-28 edge on LePra George's tough finish in the paint at the 8:26 mark.
  • While Demerius Shakur and Carter Carbonell traded threes to briefly swap the lead, Clance Crosby's left-side layup with 6:47 to go jumpstarted a 6-0 MACU surge capped off on buckets by Morris Williams and Skillman to set the Evangels' edge to 37-32 with just under five remaining.
  • Over the next three-and-a-half minutes, JBU chiseled away at the MACU edge, outscoring the Evangels 12-7 to tie it at 43-43 on Oetting's triple with just over a minute to go.
  • Another sensational long two with a foot on the line by Baldwin put the Evangels back in-front at 45-43. After getting a defensive stop with 11 seconds left, MACU had one last chance to add some insurance heading into the half, but Zander Baker's contested right side three at the buzzer was just off the mark.
• Second Half
  • Mid-America Christian struggled to start the second half as the Golden Eagles opened with six-unanswered through the first 3:35, giving JBU the 49-45 advantage and prompting MACU head coach Josh Gamblin to call a timeout.
  • The Evangels fought back with a 7-2 surge as Williams steal and fastbreak dunk briefly put MACU back in-front 52-51 before Oetting got open to the basket on the backdoor cut to give JBU the lead back with 15:47 left.
  • The MACU defense clamped down over the next few minutes as a pair of midrange jumpers from Baldwin and Shannon Strickland gave the Evangels the 56-53 advantage with 13:10 remaining.
  • The Evangels defense continued to be stout over the next few minutes, eventually stretching the edge out to 58-54 with 11:22 to go.
  • MACU struggled to keep the scoring up over the next six-and-a-half minutes as John Brown surged back in-front behind a 15-5 run as a Marko Malekinusic contested three from the left side gave the Golden Eagles a 69-63 lead with 5:09 left, prompting another MACU timeout.
  • After a Josh Stewart layup gave JBU its largest lead of the game at that point at 71-63 at the 4:38 mark, Crosby snapped MACU's cold spell with a massive and-one flush to beat the shot clock with just over four minutes left to make it 71-65.
  • That would be the last bucket for the Evangels the rest of the way JBU slowly pulled away over the final four minutes to secure the 82-68 win over the Evangels.

GAME NOTES

• After shooting a shade under 60 percent in the first half, the Evangels shot under 30 percent in the second stanza as Mid-America Christian for the contest went 27-for-59 (45.8 percent), but only 7-of-23 (30.4 percent) from the three-point arc and had one of its toughest nights of the season from the foul stripe at 7-for-16 (43.8 percent).
• Meanwhile, MACU could not find an answer for John Brown's perimeter game as the Golden Eagles finished 25-for-54 (46.3 percent) from the field, including a blistering 12-of-25 (48 percent) from the three-point arc and took advantage of its free tries with a 20-for-24 (83.3 percent) clip from the foul stripe.
• The Golden Eagles dominated the glass, out-rebounding MACU by a 42-26 margin, including a 12-6 edge on the offensive glass that resulted in a 14-7 advantage in second chance points.
• The one area the Evangels excelled in was their ball security, only committing seven turnovers while nearly doubling up the Golden Eagles with 13 takeaways, resulting in a 13-5 edge in points off turnovers.
• Morris Williams continued to be the offensive leader for MACU, finishing the contest with 20 points on 8-of-15 shooting, going 2-for-4 from behind the arc while tallying three steals to go with a pair of rebounds and two assists.
• Clay Baldwin provided a spark off the MACU bench, pouring in 15 points on a highly efficient 6-of-9 from the floor and 3-for-3 from the foul line.
• Corey Skillman was the only other Evangel to finish in double-figures with 10 points on 4-for-9 from the field, going 2-of-6 from range while also tallying three steals.
• Clance Crosby led MACU on the glass with four rebounds to go with eight points on 4-for-7 shooting while Demerius Shakur and Shannon Strickland led the distribution efforts with three assists apiece.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will wrap-up its final road contest of the 2025 slate on Saturday as the Evangels will seek a bounce-back at College of the Ozarks for a 4 p.m. tip-off inside Keeter Gymnasium.