South OKC News

The MACU men's basketball team went toe-to-toe with its crosstown rival Southwestern Christian on Monday night at the Gaulke Activity Center, but the Evangels were unable to complete the comeback as MACU fell 89-86 to start the second half of SAC play.

 

TOP PERFORMERS

• Eylan Goodwyn – 19 Points, 2-5 FG, 7 Reb, 2 Steals
• Trevonte Doolittle – 13 Points, 3-3 FG, 7-7 FT, 5 Assists, 4 Reb, 2 Steals
• Tarrence Gaines – 11 Points, 13 Reb, 2 Assists

GAME SUMMARY

• First Half
  • After giving up the opening score to SCU's Ronald Moore Jr. with 18:47 left, Mid-America Christian (7-11, 4-8 SAC) went on an 11-unanswered run with five different Evangels getting in the scoring column as DaRaun Clark's layup off a Trevonte Doolittle dime made it an 11-2 MACU advantage with 15:11 left.
  • Southwestern Christian (8-7, 6-6 SAC) stormed back behind a 15-5 streak of its own as Luiz Machado Jr. nailed a three with 10:19 to go to tie it up at 16-all before a Darrin Ryan free throw with 9:40 remaining put the Eagles back in-front.
  • On the ensuing possession, Conner Calavan hit a floater in the paint to briefly give MACU the lead back, but SCU reclaimed a three-point edge following a Taylor Turner layup followed by Taylor steal leading to a Machado Jr. fastbreak layup to set the score to 21-18 with 8:44 to go.
  • A minute later, the Eagles built their lead out to four off a Machado Jr. jumper, but the Evangels battled back to tie it on a Quentin Woodson layup and a Tarrence Gaines tip-in with 5:48 remaining to make it 24-24.
  • SCU once again built a new largest lead off a Moore three and a pair of Machado Jr. foul shots with 4:56 left before both teams went scoreless over the next three minutes.
  • A Clark fadeaway jump shot at the two-minute mark finally ended the scoring drought before Shawn Hopkins buried two free throws with 1:36 left to snap the Eagles 3:20 scoreless streak.
  • A pair of free throws apiece from Clark and Doolittle trimmed it to a one-point game with 52 seconds on the clock, but a Machado Jr. three-point play on the following possession gave SCU the 34-30 advantage going into the break.
• Second Half
  • Mid-America Christian opened the second half by scoring on its first two possessions as layups by Eylan Goodwyn and Doolittle jumpstarted a 10-5 MACU run over the first 3:46 as Seth Hurd's offensive board and putback pushed the Evangels back in-front 40-39 at the 16:16 mark.
  • The two squads traded leads four times before a tip-shot from Woodson followed a Doolittle steal leading to a Calavan three-ball pushed the MACU advantage to 47-43 with 14:10 to go.
  • The Evangels maintained their advantage over the next three minutes before a Hoskins lay-in ignited a string of eight straight by the Eagles as three-balls from Turner and Machado Jr. propelled SCU to a 58-54 edge with 10 minutes left.
  • MACU fought back to tie it on four more occasions over the next four minutes, the last coming on a Goodwyn steal leading to a Clark transition bucket to make it a 66-66 game with just over six minutes remaining.
  • Southwestern Christian gradually pulled away over the next five minutes by utilizing some red-hot foul shooting to built its advantage to its largest of the game with 50 seconds left as a pair of Machado Jr. free throws made it an 89-78 game.
  • The Evangels battled back as Goodwyn and Jonathan Alexandre buried a pair of threes in-between forcing a pair of Eagles turnovers brought MACU back before Goodwyn with one shoe knocked down a baseline midrange jumper with 17 seconds left to close it to an 89-86 deficit.
  • Unfortunately, the game ended abruptly as MACU's comeback effort came up just short.

GAME NOTES

• Overall, Southwestern Christian shot slightly better from the field, knocking down 22-for-52 (42.3 percent) with a 9-of-26 (34.6 percent clip from the three-point arc. Mid-America Christian finished the contest by shooting 32-for-86 (37.2 percent) from the floor and 7-of-27 (25.9 percent) from range.
• Free throw differential played the biggest impact in the outcome of the contest as the Eagles knocked down 36-of-41 (87.8 percent) of its foul shots while MACU converted 15-for-24 (62.5 percent).
• While SCU held an overwhelming free throw advantage, Mid-America Christian kept alive by putting together a herculean effort on the glass. With 62 total rebounds, outrebounding SCU 62-33, the Evangels broke their NAIA Era single-game boards record with the previous high of 60 coming in a 126-72 win at Bacone (Okla.) on Jan. 2, 2020.
• The Evangels also smashed their single-game offensive rebounds record in the effort. MACU ripped down 36 offensive boards, topping the previous high of 25 in a 96-87 loss to the University of the Southwest (N.M.) on Dec. 18, 2014.
• Four MACU players finished in double-figure scoring, led by Eylan Goodwyn who poured in 19 points on 8-of-15 shooting to go with seven boards and a pair of thefts.
• DaRaun Clark also finished with 13 points, but struggled from the field by shooting just 4-for-20 with a 1-of-7 clip from three, but made up for it from the free throw line by knocking down 5-of-7 attempts.
• Making his first start since Dec. 3, Trevonte Doolittle provided a spark from the point guard position, notching 13 points on 3-of-3 shooting while going 7-for-7 from the free throw line. The senior guard also had a sensational floor game, dishing out a game-high five assists while committing just one turnover.
• Tarrence Gaines recorded his third double-double of the season with 11 points and a game-high 13 rebounds, 10 of which came in the opening half.
• Seth Hurd also finished with double-digit rebounds, pulling down a career-high 12.
• Mid-America Christian did a strong job of taking care of the basketball, finishing the contest with just 10 turnovers, its second-fewest giveaways in a game this season while holding a slight edge in the turnover margin with the Eagles tallying 11 turnovers.
• With the loss, Southwestern Christian swept the season series after coming away with an 85-73 win inside Pickens-Springer Gymnasium on Dec. 13.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will return to action on Saturday as the Evangels will host Central Christian for a 3:45 p.m. tip-off inside the Gaulke Activity Center.

Original source can be found here