OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mid-America Christian University women's basketball team knew entering play on Thursday night that a win over NAIA #7 Wayland Baptist University would be a big boost to their chances of making their first ever trip to the NAIA Division I Women's Basketball National Championship. Unfortunately, though, when the evening was over, the Lady Evangels had fallen short of that goal.
MACU (17-9, 11-7 SAC) battled furiously in the second half, but they were unable to overcome a second quarter that saw Wayland Baptist (21-4, 14-3 SAC) open a big lead, and the Flying Queens held on for the win, 82-74.
WBU opened the game on a 16-8 run, but a traditional 3-point play from Ossyana Ozoani and a 3-point field goal from Janaya Hines helped MACU close to within two at 16-14 with 4:42 to play in the opening quarter. The Lady Evangels were unable, however, to draw level, and WBU got a free throw from Gabby Gonzales with .3 seconds remaining in the quarter to take a 25-19 lead into the quarter break.
The second quarter started slowly for both teams, as MACU was able to pull to within three by scoring seven of the first 11 points in the frame, but that stretch encompassed more than half of the period. Wayland responded with nine straight points after a Flying Queens' timeout, and they closed the half on a 16-2 run to take a 45-28 lead into the locker room.
The MACU deficit reached 21 three different times in the third quarter, but MACU scrapped and clawed their way to knock a point off the halftime deficit, entering the final quarter trailing 70-54.
The Lady Evangels opened the final 10 minutes on an 8-0 run, to cut the margin to eight at the 6:31 mark after a made 3-pointer from Jessica Fairley. Moments later, Alexis Shannon scored to trim the MACU deficit to five at 74-69. WBU pushed the lead back out to 11, but Fairley scored five straight points to pull MACU back within six. In the final seconds, however, MACU had to commit four fouls before sending WBU to the free throw line, and when Morgan Bennett made both charity tosses, the game was sealed, and WBU took the win 82-74.
Shannon finished with 22 points to lead all scorers, but MACU had only one other player score in double figures – Fairley with 14. Fairley and Ozoani each grabbed a team leading eight rebounds in the game as well. MACU shot only 36.9% (24-for-65) for the game from the floor, but they did make 8-of-17 (47.1%) from long range and 18-of-21 (85.7%) from the foul line.
MACU will be back at home on Saturday when they welcome the Oklahoma Panhandle State University Aggies (14-11, 6-11 SAC) to the Gaulke Activity Center for a 3 p.m. tip-off.
