OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mid-America Christian University women's basketball team has released its 2017-18 schedule, and once again the Lady Evangels have a full slate on tap. With the addition of two schools to the Sooner Athletic Conference docket, the conference schedule now includes 22 conference games, eight non-league contests, and two exhibitions.
"We are going to learn a lot about ourselves early in the season," MACU head coach Hannah Moeller said of the schedule. "Playing really good teams like College of the Ozarks, Oklahoma Christian University, and the University of North Texas will create great and exciting challenges for us early. I know we will meet those challenges head-on and grow with each of them. We want to play our best basketball in March, and playing great teams like these and others early will help us do that. The highly competitive nature of our non-conference schedule will do nothing but prepare us to compete night in and night out in conference play."
The Evangels will open their 2017-18 schedule on the final weekend of October, welcoming a pair of teams from Kansas down to the Gaulke Activity Center. The season tips-off on October 27 when Manhattan Christian College (Kan.) comes to town for a 6 p.m. game, and the next afternoon, MACU will host the Bethel College (Kan.) Threshers for a 3 p.m. tip off. The Lady Evangels first road game of the season is slated for November 2 at Kansas Wesleyan University at 6:30 p.m. – one of only three non-conference away games for the Lady Evangels. MACU will also take part in the College of the Ozarks (Mo.) Classic on November 17 and 18 where they will battle the host Bobcats and the Grand View University Vikings.
MACU will play a pair of away exhibitions, heading to the University of North Texas to take on the Mean Green on November 10, and going to nearby Edmond to battle former Sooner Athletic Conference foe Oklahoma Christian University on November 21.
Sooner Athletic Conference play opens on November 30, when MACU will host the first SAC game ever for Central Christian College (Kan.), and they will also play home SAC games against Oklahoma City University (Dec. 2) and Southwestern Assemblies of God (Texas) University (Dec. 14) before playing their first SAC road game at Texas Wesleyan University on December 16. The final non-conference game of the season will be against Southwestern College (Kan.) at 3 p.m. on December 30.
The second semester slate gets underway on January 4 at Southwestern Christian (Okla.) University, and that game kicks off a stretch of four away games in the first five contests of 2018. MACU will play at home only three times in January – against St. Gregory's (Okla.) University (Jan. 6), Bacone College (Okla.) (Jan. 18), and Texas Wesleyan (Jan. 25) – but that also sets up MACU for a stretch that will see them play five of their final seven games at home in February. After opening the season's final month at Central Christian (Feb. 1) and Oklahoma City (Feb. 3), MACU returns home for games against John Brown University (Feb. 8), the University of Science and Arts Oklahoma (Feb. 12), Wayland Baptist (Texas) University (Feb. 15), Oklahoma Panhandle State University (Feb. 17), and a senior day tilt with Southwestern Christian (Feb. 24).
The SAC Conference Tournament will take place in two phases again this season. Eight teams will qualify for the SAC Tournament, and the top four seeds will host quarterfinal games on February 27. The winners of those four games will advance to the final site of the SAC Championship, with the semifinals and finals of the tournaments scheduled for Bill George Arena at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas on March 2 and 3. The regular season and tournament champions will receive the SAC's two automatic berths to the NAIA Division I Women's Basketball National Championship in Billings, Montana. If the same team wins both championships, then the second automatic berth will go to the tournament runner up.
