Story by Mike Bennett, special contributor to www.evangelathletics.com

It's never easy playing in the Heart Conference -- no matter the opponent's record.

So knows Evangel Coach Bert Capel and his deep team.

The Valor also know they have a propensity for surging at the end.

Both were the cases on Saturday as 6-13 Missouri Valley trailed by only 4 – at 69-65 – with 7:46 left.

Then, the Valor surged as strong, deep and 18th-ranked teams do at the end. Led by senior guard Josh Pritchett in the final minutes, they raced to a 91-73 victory at Ashcroft Center.

The win solidified Evangel's position in second place in the Heart Conference. They are now 12-2 in league – and 17-3 overall – and three games in front of Baker, Mid-American Nazarene and Peru State.

Pritchett quickly scored on a layup after the Vikings pulled within 4. Then, he made a jumper and a free throw and swished a 3-pointer. Just 5 minutes later, the score was 86-68 and it was game over.

Pritchett scored a game-high 22 points and added six rebounds, five assists and two steals.

"Coach does a good job of making halftime adjustments," Pritchett said. "We came out energized. We were able to play our offense to our strengths. It just happened to be me tonight."

But, the next game, he said, there are eight or nine other players "who can step up and score 20." They include Edriel Martinborough, who scored 15 points and had a game-high eight rebounds on Saturday. Autry Acord added 13, Bryce Hunt 10, Manrique Alvarado 9 and Garrett Davault 9.

"We were very efficient in the second half on offense and defense," Capel said. "We held them to 28 points."

National leader Acord made six assists and three steals to total 73 for the season.

Missouri Valley hit 13 of its 24 first-half shots for 54.2%, while Evangel was 20-of-35 for 57.1%.

The Valor were 37-of-67 for the game for 55.2% and 10-for-28 on 3-pointers (35.7%). Pritchett was 9-of-13 on field goals and 2-of-4 on 3-pointers.

The Vikings were held to just 6-for-21 on 3-point efforts.

Capel said teams go in with game plans, but they usually have to change. In that realm, Missouri Valley used many different defensive schemes in an effort to slow Evangel's early plans on Saturday. "Like any team, we go in and make adjustments at halftime. You have a game plan going in and at halftime see if it's working or not," he said. "I thought we executed better in the second half. We had a counter for everything."

One great counter is to keep switching in rested players. "We can bank on having fresher guys," Pritchett said. "We are bringing in more guys back-to-back. That wears down the other team."

Capel agrees: "Any time you have depth, it helps. We have guys ready to go; their minds are right. You never know who will be the one who steps up."

Missouri Valley is 6-14 and 4-10 in the Heart.

The Valor won their first meeting this season, 73-60, on Jan. 4 at Marshall, Mo.

The teams won't play regularly after this season as Evangel is switching into the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference.

The Valor return to action on Wednesday with a game at 7:30 p.m. at Graceland in Lamoni, Iowa. 

Graceland fell to William Penn 64-58 on Saturday to move to 7-7 in conference and 12-8 overall. William Penn is now 14-0 in league and 18-2 overall.