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The MACU men's basketball team put together a strong showing against No. 10 LSU-Shreveport in its Battle at the Beach finale, but the Pilots came up with some big defensive stops late as the Evangels fell 82-75 inside Billy Harrison Fieldhouse on Wednesday.

 

TOP PERFORMERS

• Eylan Goodwyn – 21 Points, 5-10 FG, 11-11 FT, 3 Reb, 3 Assists
• Jonathan Alexandre – 15 Points, 5-11 FG, 3-6 3FG, 2-2 FT, 5 Reb
• Jaylon Barnett – 11 Points, 5-13 FG, 4 Reb, 3 Assists, 3 Steals

GAME SUMMARY

• First Half
  • It was a back-and-forth battle in the early going as the two teams exchanged leads three times as some excellent ball movement on the fastbreak by Jaylon Barnett and Tarrence Gaines led to a wide-open Quentin Woodson layup to make it an 11-8 Mid-America Christian (2-5) advantage with 14:45 to go.
  • Over the next four minutes, LSU-Shreveport (4-2) put together a resurgent 11-2 run as Jock Hughes buried a three from the right wing with 10:45 left to give the Pilots the 19-13 edge.
  • After Goodwyn answered on the other ensuing possession with a floater from the left elbow, LSUS countered with four unanswered off a pair of Calvin Carpenter foul shots and a Devonte Snow fastbreak layup off the Carpenter feed to give the Pilots their largest lead of the half at 23-15 with 9:34 remaining.
  • The Evangels swung back with five straight of their own as a Jonathan Alexandre three-ball and a pair of Goodwyn free throws closed it to a one-possession game at 23-20 at the 8:27 mark.
  • LSU-Shreveport managed to push its lead back out to seven over the next five minutes on a Jordan Decuir put-back following a Goodwyn block to set the score to 37-30 with 2:56 to go.
  • MACU was able to finish the half strong by going on a 6-1 run highlighted by a Goodwyn and-one and Woodson offensive board and put-back to make it a 38-36 going into the half.
• Second Half
  • After giving up the opening bucket, Mid-America Christian scored four straight off two more Goodwyn free throws before Gaines made a fantastic reverse layup off a Seth Hurd dish in the paint to draw it even at 40-40 with 18:11 on the clock.
  • A Jalen Brooks hoop-and-harm on the ensuing possession jumpstarted a 16-4 LSUS run that was capped off on another Brooks bucket off an offensive board to swell the Pilots lead to 56-44 with just under 15 minutes remaining.
  • On the ensuing possession, Barnett gave the Evangels some life as he stepped behind a Woodson screen at the top of the key and buried an open three-pointer to ignite a string of 11 unanswered, capped by back-to-back triples by Jonathan Alexandre and Conner Calavan cut it to 56-55 with 12:44 to go.
  • The Pilots managed to slow down the Evangels over the next few minutes as a Rayvon Smith three from the right wing with 10:38 left briefly pushed LSUS out to 61-57, but the Evangels came back strong out of a Shreveport timeout.
  • Out of the break, the Evangels put together a 9-2 streak as Alexandre scored seven of MACU's nine points as a Barnett steal led to a transition layup for Alexandre to push the Evangels edge out to 66-63 with 7:51 to go.
  • The Pilots countered with a 9-0 run over the next two minutes as another Hughes bucket swelled the LSUS lead out to 72-66 with just over five minutes remaining.
  • Mid-America Christian managed to chip it down to one possession on two different occasions, the last coming on a Barnett floater down the right lane at the 2:22 mark to make it a 76-73 game.
  • The Pilots defense clamped down on the Evangels over the final two minutes, holding MACU to just one bucket as the LSU-Shreveport pulled away with the 82-75 win.

GAME NOTES

• Mid-America Christian was able to put together a solid game offensively, scoring its 75 points on 26-for-63 (41.3 percent) shooting and went 6-of-15 (40 percent) from beyond the arc while shooting a highly efficient 17-for-19 (89.5 percent) from the free throw line.
• LSU-Shreveport managed to out-shoot MACU by going 27-of-60 (45 percent) from the floor, but struggled from the three-point arc by knocking down just 4-for-14 (28.6 percent) from range. However, the Pilots did most of their damage from the charity stripe by converting on 24-of-29 (82.8 percent) of its attempts.
• The Evangels won the turnover battle with just 13 turnovers to 15 for LSUS, but the Pilots held a 40-34 advantage on the glass.
• Eylan Goodwyn had a breakout game offensively for MACU, scoring a career-best 21 points on 5-of-10 shooting and knocking down all 11 of his free throw attempts while tallying three boards and three assists.
• For the second straight game, Jonathan Alexandre finished in double-figure scoring with 14 points on 5-of-11 from the floor, including 3-for-6 from downtown to go with five rebounds while Jaylon Barnett rounded out MACU's double-digit scorers with 11 points on 5-of-13 from the field with four rebounds, three assists and a team-high three steals.
• Quentin Woodson narrowly missed a double-double after finishing with a team-high eight rebounds and went 3-for-8 shooting for seven points.
• The Evangels struggled to contain the Pilots offensive balance as five LSU-Shreveport players finished in double-digit scoring.
• Despite suffering its fifth straight loss, Mid-America Christian put together one of its best all-around performances of the season against an NAIA Top 10 opponent.
• The series history between the Evangels and Pilots is now even at two games apiece after MACU had won the last two meetings with a 78-72 victory at LSUS last season on Nov. 1 after getting a 103-89 win inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Nov. 7, 2019.

Original source can be found here