Shawnee, Okla. -- The St. Gregory's University Cavaliers used a big second half push to turn a tight game into a comfortable 72-60 win over the Mid-America Christian University Lady Evangels in the regular season finale Saturday evening (Feb. 23) in Shawnee, Okla. The loss drops the Lady Evangels into eighth place in the Sooner Athletic Conference, setting up a matchup against ninth seeded USAO Wednesday (Feb. 27) in the first round of the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament on the campus of Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee. Time will be announced soon. The winner of that matchup would face top-seeded Oklahoma City University on Thursday (Feb. 28).
The game featured nine ties and 15 lead changes through the first 30 minutes of the contest. The Lady Evangels took their last lead on a three-point play by Kourtni Williams that made it 48-46 at the 9:11 mark of the second half.
That's the point the Cavaliers (11-16, 5-11 SAC) seized control as a three by Porsche Young put SGU in front to stay and a bucket by Ayionna Taylor extended the lead to 51-48.
After Williams scored again to make it a one-point game, the Cavaliers pulled away by scoring 12 straight to balloon the advantage to 63-50 with 3:19 remaining.
The closest the Lady Evangels (13-14, 4-12 SAC) could get from there was eight after Parris Price made two free throws to cut the deficit to 64-56 at the 1:50 mark.
But six straight free throws, including four by Leticia Silva down the stretch put it away for the Cavaliers.
The opening half was back-and-forth throughout, with 10 lead changes and five gridlocks.
The Lady Evangels led by as many as seven in the first 20 minutes as a three by Williams made it 14-7 with 13:08 left.
Four straight points from Kalie Lucas and a three by Heather Anderson capped a 9-0 spurt that gave SGU a two-point edge.
It was 27-27 when Kelsie Dutton hit two from the charity stripe to give the Lady Evangels a 29-27 lead at the break.
Williams scored 22 points to keep her double-figure scoring streak alive. The senior forward has scored in double-digits every game thus far this season. Price scored 16 and Emilie Schirmer secured a team-high 10 rebounds.
Silva led four Cavaliers in double-figures with a double-double of 19 points and 12 boards. Lucas added 17 and Young scored 15, while Anderson chipped in with 11 poiints.
The Lady Evangels out-shot the Cavaliers 36.7 percent (11-of-30) to 30.8 percent (8-of-26) in the first half. But SGU warmed up to a 51.7 percent (15-of-29) percentage in the second half, while MACU cooled off to only a 21.9 percent (7-of-32) clip in the final 20 minutes.
