Mid-American Christian sweeps John Brown

SILOAM SPRINGS — Mid-America Christian went more than five minutes without a field goal late in the second half, but the bad news for John Brown was the Evangels didn’t quit scoring points.

The Evangels knocked down 12 of 13 free throws in that stretch to help build a double-digit lead in an 8874 victory over the Golden Eagles on Saturday at Bill George Arena.

The Evangels finished the game shooting 65 percent (13 of 20) in the second half and went 29 of 35 (82.9 percent) from the free-throw line for the night.

“Our guards, I thought they made the right play,” said MACU coach Josh Gamblin. “Whether we were up three, down three, up 10, down 10, I just thought they made the right play. At the end of the day that’s all I can ask them to do. You know sometimes shots are going to go in. Sometimes they’re not, and fortunately for us they did tonight.”

John Brown trailed 5552 after a Marquis Waller 3- pointer midway through the second half, but that was as close as the Golden Eagles would get the rest of the way.

MACU went on a 14-5 run to go up 69-57, capped by an old- fashioned three- point play by Therence Mayimba with 7:54 left in the game.

Following that play MACU didn’t score another field goal until Keyshawn Perkins buried a 3-pointer for an 83-65 advantage with 2:21 left.

In between, MACU went to the free-throw line time after time and outscored JBU 14-8 to pull away.

Mayimba led John Brown with 23 points, going 5 of 6 from the floor and 11 of 13 from the free-throw line. Perkins finished with 20 for the Evangels (12-6, 6-4), while Justin Bogle had 15 and Andre Horne 11.

Jake Caudle led John Brown ( 10- 8, 5- 5) with 21 points, while Waller had 18.

“We have to be the team that is not going to get outworked, and we got outworked for sure in this one,” said John Brown head coach Jason Beschta. “We’ve got to be a team that’s going to play smarter and execute what we’re trying to do, and we didn’t do that tonight either.”

Mid-America Christian stayed the course even after JBU got off to a hot start.

The Evangels trailed 10-2 early and called a quick timeout. Mid-American Christian turned the game around ending the quarter on a 16-5 run. The Evangels pulled ahead 42-32 at halftime.

Mid-American Christian head coach Hannah Moeller said the message in that early timeout was simple.

“Execute the game plan,” she said. “We just talked a lot about keeping them off the glass. We gave up three offensive rebounds early and then we only gave up two more in the first half. And then not panic, John Brown shoots the ball so well from the three. For us today, it was if they hit three for four (3-pointers), don’t go into panic mode and hang your head.”

JBU pulled back within 4845 late in the third quarter, but MACU ended the quarter on a 8-2 run to restablish control.

Four players — Alexis Shannon, Jennah Coffman, Chelseah Savage and Brittany Thompson — each had 12 points to lead MACU (12-6, 6-4), which moved into a tie with JBU (12-7, 6-4) for fourth place with in the conference. Jessica Fairley added 10 points for the Evangels.

Baily Cameron led JBU with 14 points, while Jana Schammel had 11. The Golden Eagles turned the ball over 16 times to MACU’s eight. At halftime, JBU had 11 turnovers and MACU only had four.

“I told them the obvious, that we haven’t been playing our best baskeball,” John Brown coach Jeff Soderquist said. “This is why we do athletics. This is the rest of your life. How do you respond to these times is a key.”