FORT WORTH - A roster now equipped with 11 players seeing significant minutes, Texas Wesleyan Men's Basketball put it all together Saturday afternoon in a 78-69 victory over MACU to bounce back to 2-2 in Sooner Athletic Conference play (7-5 overall). MACU fell to 1-3 in the SAC, 8-4 overall.

Five players scoring between 10 and 13 points led the charge for the Rams against the Evangels: Sam Lorenzen (13), Julian Torres (12), Rob Thomas (12), Peyton Sallee (10) and Juwan Jones (10). It was the fourth time in the last six games Lorenzen has scored 13 points on the nose, hitting three treys in all four games. He's also had a season high two steals in back-to-back contests. Sallee started his second-straight game. After playing 67 minutes in his first seven ball games, he's played 39 in his last two and hit all three of his shots (all 3s) against the Evangels Saturday.

MACU took momentum to end the first half. In a 25-19 game - advantage TXWES - Juwan Jones was called for a technical foul. Sam Smith was called for a flagrant foul after an 8-2 Evangels run, which they then coupled with a 8-4 run after the flagrant to finish the first 20 minutes on a 16-6 streak to take a 35-31 advantage into the locker room. The momentum didn't carry over.

The Rams responded scoring the first five points of the second half - a Sallee three and a Torres jumper - to regain control. Both teams struggled against each other's stifling defense, shooting less than 40 percent most of the way but the Rams found their rhythm in the final eight minutes. Down 56-53, the Rams hit six of their final 10 shots - including four out of five during a 10-6 spurt resulting in a 73-67 lead. 

It was the team's third-strongest defensive outing of the season - now 4-0 in the 2018-2019 campaign when holding opponents to under 70. Texas Wesleyan hasn't lost a game when holding an opponent to under 70 points since Southwestern Christian on January 9, 2016 defeated the Rams 62-60. TXWES is a whopping 26-0 since then in such games.

Dare Brazel grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds to go with five points and four blocks, Torres chipped in nine boards - one off a double-double, Thomas had six assists to just one turnover (13 assists to one turnover in the last two games) while Justin Flakes and Diing Lwal Diing each had six points off the bench.

The home crowd got their first look at East Tennessee State transfer Andre Edwards Jr. this season, who scored four points with two steals and six rebounds in 18 minutes.

WHAT'S NEXT
A very long break - 18 days off - before conference play resumes for the Rams on January 3 at Oklahoma Panhandle State. Texas Wesleyan doesn't return home until Tuesday January 8 when rival Southwest Assemblies of God makes the 45-minute drive from Waxahachie for the annual mid-week tilt. Texas Wesleyan is tied with SAGU for fifth in the early-season standings with five teams from the SAC ranked in the top 25, not including MACU or Texas Wesleyan, who were ranked when the season started. The Rams are 1-3 against the top 25, as portrayed in the most recent December 4 Coaches' Poll.