OKLAHOMA CITY – Jerrick Massenburge nailed the go-ahead three-pointer and the No. 10-ranked Mid-America Christian University Evangels pulled out a 101-95 victory over the No. 20-ranked Philander Smith College Panthers in an NAIA Top-25 matchup tonight (Nov. 14) inside the Gaulke Activity Center.
The Evangels have now won three straight and are now 5-1 on the season.
Massenburge's three came at the 1:57 mark of the second half and snapped a 93-93 tie to put the Evangels ahead for good.
Bryon Miller then scored on an offensive putback that gave the Evangels a two-possession lead.
Following two free throws by the Panthers that made it a four-point game, Jason Nwisienyi scored inside with 27 seconds left to put it away.
The Evangels were forced to rally back after the Panthers overcome a 17-point deficit in the first half to take the lead with 10:54 left.
MACU led by 14 at the break and was still up 64-52 when the Panthers made their move as three straight treys by D'Angelo Tucker capped a 19-5 run that put Philander Smith ahead 71-69 with 10:54 left.
The deficit grew to four but the Evangels responded by outscoring the Panthers 10-1 over the next two minutes to go up 85-80 with 6:04 left.
Down 14-11 in the first half, Miller came through with six straight points to put MACU on top and then capped a 15-2 burst with a three that created a double-digit lead of 26-16 at the 11:27 mark.
After the Panthers came within four, the Evangels pulled away again with a 7-1 run to again stretch the edge to 10 and MACU continued to pull away and led 56-42 at the break.
Miller was nearly flawless for the Evangels, scoring a career-high 27 points on 10-of-11 overall from the field and 5-of-6 from three-point range. Massenburge scored 18 and Nick Tate had 12 points. Malcolm Mann had 11 points and dished out a game-high eight assists. Chris Runnels filled up the stat sheet with six points, a team-high seven rebounds, three assists, four steals and six blocks. The six swats by Runnels are the most in a single-game for the Evangels as an NAIA school.
Tucker led five Panthers in double-figures with 22 points, while Emmanuel Ejeh had a game-high 15 boards and also blocked four shots.
The Evangels will next play at Langston University on Tuesday night (Nov. 17) at 7 p.m. in Langston, Okla. MACU defeated Langston at home 79-73 earlier this week (Nov. 10).
