OKLAHOMA CITY – Coming off a record-setting opener against Manhattan Christian last week, the Mid-America Christian women's basketball team returns to non-conference action with a home game against Evangel University at 6 p.m. on Friday.
LAST TIME OUT
Mid-America Christian (1-0) made an emphatic statement in its season opener on Friday, Oct. 25 with a 130-39 victory over Manhattan Christian College at the Gaulke Activity Center. The Evangels scored an NAIA era program record in the win, surpassing the previous best of 124 set in last season's 124-48 victory over Bacone on Jan. 10, 2019 and matched again at Bacone in a 124-66 win on Feb. 16, 2019.
Senior forward Alexis Shannon continues to climb the Mid-America Christian record books, as her 28-point performance against the Thunder propelled her to sixth in the all-time program record book with 1240 points, passing Ashley Hewitt at 1225. Shannon's performance was strong enough to garner the first NCCAA Division I Women's Basketball Student-Athlete of the Week honor of the 2019-20 season.
SCOUTING THE CRUSADERS
Evangel will be opening its 2019-20 season against MACU on Friday night. The Crusaders are coming off of a solid 2018-19 campaign, going 19-11 and finished with a 14-10 record in Heart of America Conference play, tying for fourth in the league. Evangel was picked to finish sixth in the Heart after receiving 106 votes in the conference preseason poll.
The Crusaders bring back their leading scorer from a season ago in senior guard Lexie Vaught, who averaged 16.1 points per game on a 48.9 percent shooting clip and knocked down 80.1 percent of her free throw attempts while finishing second on the team with 88 assists. Vaught is also tough on the defensive end and on the glass, ripping down 8.1 rebounds per contest while recording 112 steals, the fifth-most in the NAIA. Evangel also returns its second-best scorer in Brianna Vogts. The 5-9 sophomore guard last year scored 10.7 pts/g on 48 percent from the floor while also gathering 6.3 reb/g.
HISTORY WITH THE CRUSADERS
The Evangels and Crusaders will be playing each other for the first time in the NAIA era.
BRINGING BALANCE TO THE FLOOR
In the Evangels win over Manhattan Christian College, all 10 players who saw the floor scored and eight broke double-figures. Outside of Alexis Shannon's 28 points, Lexi Hernandez (17), Loralei Siliga (16), Jessica Fairley (16), Sydney Wycoff (11), Avery Gregory (11), Anna Kash (11) and Rachel Tapps (10) reached the 10-point plateau.
A "FAIRLEY" GOOD GAME
Senior guard Jessica Fairley provided a major spark off the bench for the Evangels in last week's win. In just 21 minutes of action, the Choctaw, Okla. native recorded a double-double with 16 points and a career-high 14 rebounds while also tying a career-best five steals to go with three blocked shots and four assists.
WHY NOT WYCOFF?
After Shaylan Coleman recorded the second-most assists in the program's NAIA history with 143 a season ago, sophomore point guard Sydney Wycoff will be looking to chase down her predecessor's milestone mark. In the first game of the season, Wycoff already surpassed her career-best with seven assists against the Thunder, passing by her previous best of six set against Southwestern (Kan.) and Dallas Christian. The 5-6 guard from Ankeny, Iowa also set a career-high mark with four steals while tying a career-best seven rebounds.
