OKLAHOMA CITY – The evening did not start out well for the Mid-America Christian University women's basketball team, as the team trailed Southwestern Christian University by 10 after one quarter of play. By the end of the night, however, a trio of underclassmen had helped lift the Lady Evangels to a Senior Night win.
Jessica Fairley posted her second double-double of the season, and she was joined in double figures by fellow sophomores Alexis Shannon and Nevada Denton as well as junior Jennah Coffman, as MACU (20-9, 13-7 SAC) locked up a home game in the upcoming Sooner Athletic Conference quarterfinal with a win over SCU (11-16, 6-14 SAC), 78-73.
The first quarter of the game was all SCU. Shannon scored the first basket of the game, but SCU responded with nine straight tallies to open a 9-2 lead. Four different Evangels scored in the first frame, but none of them scored more than one time in the period, and when the buzzer sounded to end the first stanza, SCU led 19-9.
SCU got a 3-pointer from McKenna Morley just 18 seconds into the second quarter, but MACU began to whittle away at the deficit. Fairley cashed in a traditional 3-point play just more than a minute and a half later to pull MACU within seven at 22-15. A couple minutes later, Denton made a pair of free throws to trim the margin to five at 28-23, and just nine seconds past the halfway mark in the period, Fairley buried a triple to cut the deficit to a single possession at 31-28. SCU scored three straight free throws to push the lead back to six, but Fairley nailed another 3-pointer in the final 30 seconds of the half to cut the halftime deficit for MACU to just two at 36-34.
SCU struck first in the third frame, but the Evangels continued to rally. Coffman and Shannon scored on consecutive trips to trim the SCU lead to one at 39-38 with 7:56 to go in the period, and just 90 seconds later, Coffman gave MACU the lead back at 43-42. Six straight points from SCU gave the Eagles a five point lead back, but MACU answered with an 8-0 run to take the lead, and this time, they made it stick, and after three quarters, MACU led 58-52.
SCU tried to stay close in the early going of the fourth quarter, but a 15-4 run from MACU gave the Lady Evangels a 75-60 lead with 4:22 to go in the game. The Eagles mounted one last charge in the waning moments, putting together an 8-0 run to trim MACU's lead to 77-70 with 1:46 to go, but the Evangels held off the charge, and grabbed the win 78-73.
Fairley led all scorers in the game with 19 points and she grabbed 11 rebounds as well. Shannon scored 18, Denton added a baker's dozen, and Coffman chipped in 11 tallies. Brittany Thompson grabbed eight boards, and Chelseah Savage dished out seven assists on their Senior Night as well. As a team, MACU made 27-of-67 (40.3 %) shots from the floor in the game, but only 6-of-22 (27.3%) from long distance. At the foul line, MACU converted 18-of-24 (75%) attempts. The Lady Evangels out-rebounded the Eagles 41-33, and MACU held advantages in all five enhanced scoring breakdowns – 14-9 on the fast break, 17-11 in points off turnovers, 36-28 in the paint, 16-7 on second chance opportunities, and a whopping 25-8 off the bench.
The Lady Evangels wrapped up the number four seed in the SAC Tournament with the win. MACU will host the John Brown University Golden Eagles (18-11) in the quarterfinal round on Tuesday night at the Gaulke Activity Center. The game is slated to tip-off at 6 p.m., and the full SAC Tournament bracket will be announced on Sunday afternoon.
