WAXAHACHIE, Texas – It's not often that a team's leading scorer can be held down in a road game, and that team still is able to pull out a victory. On Saturday afternoon, the Mid-America Christian University women's basketball team did just that.
MACU (14-6, 8-4 SAC) saw their leading scorer, Alexis Shannon, held to two points in their game at Southwestern Assemblies of God University, but the Lady Evangels got 20-point efforts from Nevada Denton and Chelseah Savage, and Jessica Fairley narrowly missed a double-double as MACU took the win 75-66 to split the season series.
MACU scored six of the game's first eight points, but a 9-2 SAGU run gave the Lady Lions an 11-8 lead with 4:12 to play. Savage buried a 3-pointer with 3:03 to play in the first quarter, to tie the game at 11, but SAGU got a 3-pointer from Eva Atunuwa to take a 14-11 lead with 2:39 to play in the frame, and save for a made free throw from Brittany Thompson, neither team scored down the stretch, and after one quarter of play, MACU trailed 14-12.
The game was close throughout the second quarter, with SAGU leading for most of the frame. The Lady Lions built a 5-point lead with 6:17 to play, but the Evangels rallied to tie the game at 23 on another made 3-pointer from Savage. Janaya Hines scored with 3:42 to play in the half to put MACU ahead 27-26, and a bucket from Rebekah Wilson at the 1:29 mark gave MACU a 31-29 lead. The Lady Lions, however, scored the final four points of the first half, and at intermission, MACU trailed 33-31.
SAGU got a 3-pointer from Lexi Rich to open the second half scoring, but MACU began to whittle away at the deficit, and four consecutive made free throws from Ossyana Ozoani and Denton knotted things up at 40 with 5:58 to go in the third quarter. After SAGU took a 42-40 lead, MACU put together a 7-0 run to take a 5-point lead on yet another long range shot from Savage at the 3:18 mark. The Lady Evangels led by as many as eight in the closing moments of the quarter, and when the period ended, MACU led 54-49.
MACU made the most of the momentum, as they held the lead for the remainder of the game. Twice the Lady Lions closed the gap to within three points, but both times, MACU answered the call, and when the clock expired, MACU had a 9-point win, 75-66.
Denton led all scorers with 23 points, including a 10-for-10 performance at the free throw line. Savage added 20 points, eight rebounds, and three assists; and Ozoani added 10 points and eight boards. Fairley scored nine points and pulled in a team leading 11 boards. MACU made 20-of-58 (34.5%) shots in the game, including 6-of-18 (33.3%) 3-pointers. The difference in the game came at the foul line, where MACU held a 24-point advantage and made 29-of-35 (82.9%) attempts.
MACU will head north for their next contest, traveling to McPherson, Kansas to take on the Central Christian College Tigers (1-19, 0-12 SAC) on Thursday, February 1 at 6 p.m.
