SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – On a day where seniors were honored for their time and commitment to Evangel, Senior Cade Coffman rose to the occasion, leading the Valor to a victory over MNU, 67-65.
MidAmerica began the afternoon leading Evangel after nailing two consecutive threes out of the gate. Trailing 6-5, the Valor slowly began to gain momentum behind a solid home crowd. Coffman took over for EU, grabbing a 6-0 run for the home team, thanks to a wide assortment of offensive baskets. Coffman’s offense awoken the rest of the team’s offensive urgency and EU began to widen their lead. Jace Coffie hit a three, a layup, and forced a Pioneer turnover which Josh Pritchett scored on the other end to force a MNU timeout with EU leading, 21-8.
The Pioneers could not touch the Valor lead, as both teams traded baskets until Evangel grew cold. MNU took advantage of the cold-shooting, finding the right time to find their groove offensively. MNU’s Trey Brown sparked a 16-3 run over five minutes for the Pioneers to make it a 29-26 ballgame, in favor of Evangel. For the next 3:19, the Valor and Pioneers traded baskets until the halftime buzzer, with EU on top, 35-30. Coffman led Evangel with nine points at the half, thanks to 50 percent shooting from the floor.
Coming out of halftime, Evangel and MidAmerica matched up well between one another. Every opportunity that the Valor had was matched by a Pioneer basket of their own. The Valor extended their lead to eight, thanks to layups by Pritchett and Edriel Martinborough, but again, MidAmerica found another gear to reduce the EU lead back to just three.
With 4:58 remaining in the ballgame and an Evangel 58-55 lead, the Valor found another spurt of offense. Stephen Salvi kicked off the EU run with a jumper and over the next three and a half minutes, Evangel extended their lead back to double digits. It appeared that Evangel’s run put MNU out of the game, but the Pioneers would not go down without a fight. With Evangel leading 67-57 with 1:32 remaining, MNU went on an 8-0 run in the span of 23 seconds, cutting the EU lead to just two points.
MidAmerica called timeout and set up a play with 22 seconds remaining, tossing up a three that became wedged between the rim, with seven seconds on the clock. The possession arrow favored the Pioneers, so after another Rocky Lamar timeout, MNU had one more chance at the buzzer. The Pioneers came up just short on a Trey Brown three, as the Valor escaped away with a narrow 67-65 victory.
Coffman led Evangel with 16 points and also tacked on 6 rebounds. Pritchett finished with 15 points and 6 assists. Both Coffman and Pritchett shot 6-11 (54.5%) from the floor. Coffie rounded out double-digit scoring for the Valor, finishing his night with a solid 10 point outing off the bench. The Valor were outrebounded by a 39-33 margin but only turned the ball over 16 times, compared to MNU’s 22 turnovers.
