South OKC News

The MACU men's basketball team suffered a tough loss in its Sooner Athletic Conference opener against Langston, who got out to a big lead early and never looked back as the Evangels fell 95-52 inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Wednesday night.

 TOP PERFORMERS

• Jaylon Barnett - 12 Points, 4-6 FG, 4-6 FT, 2 Assists
• DaRaun Clark - 11 Points, 9-15 FT, 2 Steals
• Trevonte Doolittle - 8 Points, 3-6 FG, 2-2 FT

GAME SUMMARY

 

• First Half
  • It took over two minutes for either team to get on the scoreboard as Langston's three-pointer by Anthony White at the 17:58 mark gave the Lions the first and only lead of the contest.
  • With 14:18 left, DaRaun Clark drew a foul on a three-point shot and buried all three free throws to cut it to one-point lead at 7-6, but that would be the closest the Evangels would be able to cut into the Langston lead for the rest of the night.
  • A two-and-a-half-minute scoring drought for Mid-America Christian boosted the Lions' advantage to 17-9 following White's second three-pointer midway through the first half. Eylan Goodwyn got a layup to go off the dish from Tarrence Gaines with 10:01 to play to break the dry spell and get it back to a two-possession game.
  • Following the Goodwyn bucket, the Evangels hit another cold spell that saw the Evangels go 4:17 without a field goal as Langston utilized a 13-0 run over that stretch to build a 30-11 lead behind a balanced scoring attack.
  • A layup by Quentin Woodson with 3:59 to go was the final field goal for Mid-America Christian in the half as both teams clamped down defensively over the final four minutes with Langston only outscoring MACU 5-3 the rest of the way to stretch the advantage to 39-19 going into the break.
• Second Half
  • MACU was unable to cut into the Langston lead out of the gate as LU opened the first seven minutes by outscoring the Evangels 18-10 to increase the advantage to 57-29.
  • In the final 10 minutes of play, Mid-America Christian suffered another four-minute scoring drought that helped Langston put the game out of reach.
  • Following a Conner Calavan three-ball with 3:22 to go, Langston put together a 13-unanswered run that was capped off on a Paul Ifft layup with 21 seconds left to give the Lions their largest of the contest at 45
  • Peyton Musick scored his first career bucket on MACU's final possession to wrap-up the 96-52 final score

GAME NOTES

• Mid-America Christian struggled against the stingy Langston defense in the first half as the Evangels shot just 27.8 percent from the field and 1-for-8 from three-point land. MACU had a little more success from the field in the second half by knocking down 40-percent of its shots, but the Evangels still could only finish 15-for-43 (34.9 percent) from the floor and just 2-of-14 (14.3 percent) from three for the game.
• The Evangels struggled to slow down in the second half as the Lions poured in 56. Langston was aggressive in getting to the rim as LU was able to draw several Evangels fouls as 22 of those 56 second half points came from the free throw line. The Lions shot an excellent 91.7 percent from the line and 55.2 percent as a whole from the field.
• Jaylon Barnett led the way in scoring off the MACU bench, finishing with 12 points on 4-of-6 from the field and 4-of-6 from the charity stripe.
• DaRaun Clark was the only other Evangel to crack into double-figure scoring with 11 points, nine of which came from the foul line after going 9-for-15 on free throw attempts.
• The Lions ferocious defense forced 19 Evangels turnovers which resulted in 27 points while MACU only mustered nine points of 13 Langston miscues.
• The foul line played one of the biggest factors in the contest as Langston knocked down 30-of-37 (81.1 percent) of its free throw attempts while Mid-America Christian struggled from the charity stripe with a 20-for-38 (52.6 percent) rate.
• Langston improved to 3-0 on the season and started out SAC play with a 1-0 record while the Evangels fell to 2-1 overall in their first conference decision.
• The victory by Langston was just the Lions second ever win over MACU in the all-time series as LU ended MACU's eight-game winning streak in the series.

Original source can be found here