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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

PINSON – The Evangel Christian Lightning took a big step in the defense of their 2024 Alabama Christian Schools Conference tournament championship as they locked up the top seed in the 2025 tournament.

Evangel won the regular season title with a 95-66 win over the East Central HomeSchool Patriots on the road on Friday, Feb. 7.

The Lightning now enter the conference tournament with a 20-4 overall record on the season and a seven-game win streak dating back to their lone conference loss, a two-point road defeat to perennial rival Ezekiel Academy.

Since that game, Evangel swept the season series with Southern Christian, downed Ezekiel by 19 in the rematch and picked up a commanding win over Wiregrass ahead of a pair of non-conference games against Pineview Christian and Mt. Pleasant Christian.

Those final two non-conference games served as a crucial tune-up as Ezekiel lurked just behind the Lightning in the standings, and an Evangel loss and Knights win would leave the teams tied atop the ACSC.

However, the Lightning left little to chance. They were the stronger side in the opening minutes of the contest and used their early shooting success to score 21 points in the first quarter.

That gave Evangel the early edge and a 21-17 lead going into the second quarter, where the lead would only grow.

The Patriots still found plenty of success on the offensive end as they scored 20 points themselves in the second, but the Lightning continued to find the bottom of the basket early and often.

Evangel extended its lead by five over the course of the quarter to take a 46-37 advantage into the halftime break.

Everything started to click for the Lightning coming out of the locker room. Evangel had its best quarter on both sides of the ball, scoring 29 points on offense while allowing just 12 points on defense.

As a result of outscoring East Central by 17 points during the third, the Lightning took a commanding 75-49 lead into the final eight minutes of the game.

Evangel cruised from there thanks to its double-digit lead and outscored the Patriots 20-17 in the fourth quarter to put the finishing touches on the 29-point win and the conference championship.

In all, six different the Lightning players got into double figures in the 95-point performance. Sawyer Blackman led Evangel with 18 points, seven rebounds and two steals. Ben Bugnar had 12 points and three rebounds.

Michael Gobel and Hudson Walker each had 11 points while Walker added five steals and three rebounds to his total. Nick Cloud and Jonathan Gill finished with 10 points each, and Gill secured seven rebounds as well.

Asa Wagoner had six points and three assists, Will Welch earned six points and four rebounds, Cade Joiner secured five points, six assists, four steals and three rebounds and Paul Dixon ended the game with four points and three rebounds.

Evangel will open the ACSC tournament with a matchup against the Wiregrass Kings on Friday, Feb. 14 at 3 p.m. at Faulkner University in Montgomery. A win would put the Lightning back in the championship game on Saturday, Feb. 15 with a chance to repeat their crowning achievement from a season ago.