Valor Outrun Eagles with Hot Second Half

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – In a game that was extremely close most of the way, Evangel (5-4, 4-1 KCAC) got on one torrid stretch in the second half while Avila (2-5, 1-4 KCAC) remained ice cold, helping the Valor pull away for a 90-66 victory on Wednesday night in Springfield.

The first KCAC men's basketball matchup between the two former HAAC foes was extremely close for 25 of the allotted 40 minutes, featuring an impressive seven ties and five lead changes. Evangel's lead at the halftime break was only five, and that was their same advantage with 15:30 left to play in regulation. At that point, however, things completely flipped, and the Valor absolutely caught fire in the second half while the Eagles, who continued to play extremely hard and generated more than a few good looks in the period, simply could not get a shot to go down, and Evangel capitalized.

Over those final 15 minutes of the half, the Valor went on a 12-0 run – that's not 12 straight points, but 12 straight field goals, leaving the Eagles behind in their quest to claw back into the contest against one of the preseason KCAC favorites. Evangel shot north of 50% from the field in the second half and went 10-of-11 from the foul line as a team while Avila sat south of 25% from the field and managed to make only three three-pointers.

The final scoreline handily favors the Valor, but it's not like Evangel came out swinging big and dominated from start to finish. Quite the opposite in fact: Avila played extremely well over the first 25 minutes of the game and more than kept pace with an Evangel team that had a strong season in its last year in the Heart and was expected to repeat that performance in year one in the KCAC.

The Valor shot extremely well from the field in the first half as well, but the Eagles went shot-for-shot with them for the entire period, led largely by Jaren Miller and Jordan Majeed, who combined for 22 points on four made threes in the first half. Cooper Smith and Matthew Boldt helped shoulder some of the scoring load in the second half, but by that point an extremely balanced Evangel offense proved too tough to slow down after they had gotten rolling, and the Eagles were unable to fire back in the second half like they did in the first. That hot stretch for the home team over the middle 10 minutes of the second period led them to the comfortable 90-66 win, their fourth in league play this season already.

Six Evangel players scored between 10 and 15 points in the game, including all five of their starters. Manny Alvarado led the way with 15 points, and reigning HAAC Player of the Year Josh Pritchett scored ten with seven rebounds and four assists. Majeed paced the Eagles with a game-high 17 points; Miller added 12 on 4-of-5 shooting; Smith scored ten points with eight boards.

Up next, Avila men's basketball will stay on the road when they travel to face the Sterling Warriors this Saturday, December 9. The women will tip off the doubleheader at 2 PM with the men to follow at 4; as always, you can watch all the action on the KCAC Network.