OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma City men's basketball team took MACU down to the wire behind a 25-point performance by Brandon Jackson as the Stars fell short 69-63.  

Brandon Jackson scored a game-high 25 points, the 11th time scoring 20 plus this season while shooting 50 percent (5-10) from downtown. 

Oklahoma City (9-18, 7-14 SAC) continued its struggles on the road moving its record away from home to 2-9. 

Sophomore Jack McWilliams contributed 14 points on 4-of-4 shooting while seeing a 6-for-7 night from the charity stripe. The rest of the Stars company were held to just seven points or less. 

Both teams were neck and neck shooting the basketball as MACU (20-7, 16-5 SAC) barely held the edge at 37.3% to the Stars 37.0% while the Evangels took 13 more shots. The two rivals shot the exact same percentage from range at 28.6% while OCU swished two more than what the Evangels did. 

The Stars opened with a 7-2 lead and stretched out to an 18-11 advantage with 8:50 remaining. Using a 15-4 run MACU claimed its first lead of the night while forcing 13 first half turnovers for OCU as the game went into the halftime break with the Evangels up in front 28-25. 

OCU regained the lead for the first time at the 13:35 mark as Brandon Jackson nailed back-to-back threes to give the Stars some momentum. 

Neither team took more than a four-point lead until MACU took its biggest lead since the 17:03 mark of the second half at a five-point margin with 1:59 to play.  

Oklahoma City cut the deficit back to three on an Avery Jackson jumper, but the Stars failed to score another field goal in the final 1:45 of the game, allowing the Evangels to hit their free throws and earn a 69-63 victory.  

The Stars set a season-high with eight blocks in the game as McWilliams and Jackson had two a piece whereas Clayton Jewell swatted away three while tying the team-high in rebounds with eight. 

MACU capitalized in small areas of the game, scoring 20 second chance points, 19 points off turnovers and 21 points off the bench.  

MId-America Christian totaled four players in double-figures with Eddie Smith leading the Evangels with 17 points while Tarrence Gaines tied for a game-high eight rebounds.  

Oklahoma City returns home for its final game of the season on Saturday as the Stars take on Southwestern Christian at 3:45 PM inside Abe Lemons Arena.