OKLAHOMA CITY – Texas Wesleyan nearly completed a rally from 21 points down in the second half to spoil MACU Men's Basketball's Senior Day, but for the second time in a week, Corey Skillman came up clutch. The junior guard buried the go-ahead jumper with 44 seconds left before knocking down two crucial free throws after getting a defense stop to propel the Evangels to a 77-74 victory inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Saturday evening.
 
SCORE

• Mid-America Christian 77, Texas Wesleyan 74
  • Mid-America Christian (18-8, 12-8 SAC)
  • Texas Wesleyan (18-7, 14-6 SAC)

TOP PERFORMERS

• Corey Skillman – 19 Points, 6-9 FG, 4-5 3FG, 3-4 FT, 3 Reb
• Morris Williams – 19 Points, 6-10 FG, 5-8 3FG, 2-2 FT, 3 Reb
• Clance Crosby – 9 Points, 4-6 FG, 5 Reb
• James Locke – 9 Points, 3-5 FG, 3-5 3FG, 2 Steals

GAME SUMMARY

• First Half
  • Starting off the contest with a senior-laden lineup, Mid-America Christian and Texas Wesleyan went blow-for-blow through the first two minutes as both teams scored on their first three possessions. Clance Crosby came up with a pair of putback buckets while Jabez Williamson buried a three on his Senior Day to keep MACU to within a point at 8-7 with 18:04 to go.
  • After going back to their usual lineups, the Evangels put together a strong 13-4 run over the next six minutes as Morris Williams canned a trey at the 17:35 mark to put MACU in-front also ending the surge with a long jumper from the elbow make it a 20-12 Evangels advantage.
  • Even though the Rams scored the next two buckets to cut their deficit in-half, MACU quickly countered with another Williams three-ball before Manuel Zapater scooped in a reverse layup to extend the Evangels' lead to 25-16 with 11:11 left.
  • TXWES once again battled back over the next two minutes to cut the lead down to four, but Zapater knocked down a trey from the top of they at the 8:54 mark to jumpstart a dominant 16-5 streak over a five-minute stretch as Crosby hammered home a dunk from Clay Baldwin's feed to make it a commanding 42-26 MACU advantage with 3:36 to go.
  • Texas Wesleyan made a strong run near the end, rattling off 10-unanswered over a two-and-a-half-minute stretch with Matt Nero knocking down a pair of treys to cut it down to 42-36 with 1:24 left.
  • However, the Evangels doubled up their lead in the final minute with James Locke knocking down a long ball with 56 seconds remaining before Williams buried the buzzer-beating three from the left corner off the Zander Baker inbound to send MACU into the half with the 48-36 edge.
• Second Half
  • Mid-America Christian's momentum carried over into the second half as the Evangels opened the stanza with a Corey Skillman three, a Shannon Strickland midrange jumper, and a Zander Baker long ball to extend the advantage to 56-36 with 18:26 to go, prompting the Rams to take a timeout.
  • Even though the Rams scored five of the next eight out of the 30-second break, Skillman gave MACU its largest lead of the contest with a contested trey from the right side to make it a 62-41 game at the 16:56 mark.
  • Over the next five minutes, the Evangels struggled to find another field goal as the Rams utilized a 12-2 run over the stretch to chisel away at the MACU edge with Nero scooping in a layup high off the glass to cut it to a 64-53 contest with just over 12 minutes on the clock.
  • On the ensuing possession, Demerius Shakur finally snapped MACU's cold spell with a right corner three on Strickland's drive and dish before Locke popped a deep three from the left side on the next possession to push the Evangels' lead back out to 70-53 with 11:16 remaining.
  • Over the next 10 minutes, Mid-America Christian went stone cold from the field with Zapater scoring MACU's only bucket at the 8:40 mark while the Rams mustered a 21-3 run over that time frame as Nero scored the second chance bucket with 1:08 remaining to give TXWES the 74-73 edge, its first lead since early in the first half.
  • After calling the timeout, the Evangels put the ball in the hands of the player that came up clutch for them against Central Christian last Saturday. Driving down the right side, Skillman pulled and popped a 15-foot jumper and buried it with 44 seconds left to put MACU back in-front 75-74.
  • With MACU coming up with a huge defensive stop on TXWES's following possession, the Rams were forced to foul Skillman with 16 seconds to go as he once again came up big by splashing both foul shots to stretch the Evangels' edge to 77-74.
  • The Rams did have one last chance to try and tie the game, but Anthony Sierras, the Rams leading scorer on the day was unable to make the tough contested three at the buzzer as MACU held on for the victory.

GAME NOTES

• Mid-America Christian put together one of its best shooting performances of the season in its Senior Day game, going 27-for-51 (52.9 percent) from the field and made a season-high from three-point range, going 16-of-29 (55.2 percent). The Evangels needed their hot shooting in the contest with a disciplined TXWES defense only allowing MACU to get to the line 11 times, going 7-for-11 (63.6 percent).
• Texas Wesleyan also put together a solid offensive performance on the road, finishing 26-of-61 (42.6 percent) while hitting on 10-for-27 (37.0 percent) from downtown and efficiently converting 12-of-15 (80.0 percent) from the foul line.
• The Rams won both aspects of the floor game, out-rebounding the Evangels 31-27 with a 12-5 edge on the offensive glass, resulting in a 15-9 advantage in second chance points. The Rams also forced 15 MACU turnovers while only giving it away 12 times to result in a 17-12 edge in points off takeaways.
• Corey Skillman and Morris Williams were the lone Evangels to score in double-figures as Skillman poured in his 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting, going 4-for-5 from the three-point arc and 3-of-4 from the line. Williams tallied his 19 on 6-for-10 from the field and went 5-of-8 from behind the arc.
• On his Senior Day, Clance Crosby poured in nine points off another highly efficient 4-for-6 from the floor and led the team with five boards. James Locke also came up with nine points on his Senior Day by shooting 3-for-5 from behind arc while also notching two steals on the defensive end.
• The senior tandem of Clay Baldwin and Shannon Strickland led MACU's distribution efforts with four assists apiece while Strickland also matched Crosby in the rebounding department with five boards.
• Before the start of the contest, the Evangels honored their seven graduating seniors: James Locke, Shannon Strickland, Clay Baldwin, Jabez Williamson, Luke Beddow, Clance Crosby, and Ronnie Lopez, all of which made an appearance in the game.
• With the win, MACU split the season series with Texas Wesleyan and improved to 18-10 all-time against the Rams since first facing each other in 2013.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will close out the regular season on the road as the Evangels play at Oklahoma Panhandle State at 8 p.m. on Thursday before wrapping it up at Wayland Baptist with a 4 p.m. tip on Saturday.