OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mid-America Christian women's basketball team overcame a halftime deficit to Haskell Indian Nations University as the Evangels rallied in the second half to come away with a 75-63 victory at the Oklahoma City University Classic on Friday.
Senior forward Alexis Shannon led the comeback efforts with her second double-double of the season, tallying 25 points on 10-of-20 from the field with 11 rebounds and Lexi Hernandez added 14 points on 4-of-9 from beyond the arc to go with three steals.
Mid-America Christian (4-1) had a strong start to the game as Rachel Tapps three started a 7-0 run that was followed by a pair of Sydney Wycoff buckets. Haskell (3-6) fought back to close the gap to 9-7 with 4:29 to go, but the Evangels swung back with an 8-2 streak to finish the first quarter with a 16-9 advantage.
The Evangels struggled in the second quarter, notching just 12 points on 33 percent shooting while the Indians rattled off 23 points on 60 percent shooting from the floor. Haskell led by as much as five at 32-27 with 30 seconds remaining, but Shannon gave the Evangels some momentum heading into the half with a strong drive into the lane and her lay-in fell just before the buzzer to cut the deficit to 32-29.
With an eerily similar start as to the first quarter, MACU started off the third period on-fire, scoring the first 12 points on a pair of Loralei Siliga scores, threes by Hernandez and Wycoff and a Shannon bucket to reclaim a 41-32 advantage just three minutes in.
The Indians were able to keep it close throughout the remainder of the quarter, eventually narrowing the gap to 49-45 with just over two minutes left, but Hernandez drained three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to push the advantage back to 55-45 with 1:16 to go. The Indians were able to put in one more score before the third quarter buzzer to make it an eight-point game heading to the fourth.
Mid-America Christian continued to dominate in the fourth quarter, expanding its lead to as much as 19 at 69-50 on a Siliga free throw with 5:45 remaining.
Haskell once again clawed its way back to make it a 10-point game, but it was too little too late as the Evangels held on for the 12-point victory.
Siliga turned in a strong performance with 13 points and seven rebounds to go with a team-high four steals, leading a MACU defense that forced 22 turnovers with 15 steals.
Tapps and Anna Kash effectively dished out five assists apiece to lead an Evangels team with 21 team assists.
Mid-America Christian will be back in Abe Lemons Arena tomorrow afternoon for a 3 p.m. tip against Philander Smith to wrap up the OCU Classic.
