MCPHERSON, Kan. – The Mid-America Christian women's basketball team improved to 2-0 in Sooner Athletic Conference play at Central Christian on Saturday, as the Evangels were able to hold off a late Lady Tigers rally to come away with the 73-65 victory.

Mid-America Christian (6-2, 2-0 SAC) led by as much as 20 against Central Christian (2-5, 0-2 SAC) in the second half before the Lady Tigers rallied to close the gap to 67-65 with a minute remaining. However, the Evangels were able to come through in the clutch as Aaliyah Endsley, Alexis Shannon and Sydney Wycoff combined to go 6-for-8 from the foul line in the final 45 seconds while MACU held the Lady Tigers scoreless in the final minute to come away with its first conference road win.

Shannon led four Evangels in double-figures with 16 points and Wycoff turned in a strong all-around performance with 12 points, seven assists, six rebounds and four steals.

The Evangels got off to a fast start in the opening quarter, as a Shannon three-pointer at the 8:39 mark started a 9-0 run that was capped off on a Rachel Tapps layup with 5:52 to go.

The Lady Tigers were finally able to break through the Evangels stingy defense with a Kassidy Forsberg offensive rebound and put-back on the following possession, but the only other score for CCC in the quarter came with 2:42 left.

Despite a strong defensive quarter, the Lady Tigers also challenged the MACU offense in the last half of the period as the Evangels could only muster four points over the final 5:52 to hold a 13-4 edge heading into the second quarter.

CCC trimmed the Evangels lead to seven at 15-8, but a Lexi Hernandez three-pointer followed by an Endsley score and a Wycoff three-point play during an 8-1 run gave MACU its largest lead of the half at 23-9 with 5:12 to go until the break.

Mid-America Christian maintained its double-digit lead for the remainder of the quarter to take a 31-19 advantage into the half. While the Evangels struggled on the offensive end, shooting just 37.5 percent from the field and 20 percent from three, the MACU defense clamped down by limiting the Lady Tigers to just 23.7 percent from the floor with no three-point makes.

The Evangels found its offensive mojo in the third quarter as they scored 27 points in a nine-minute stretch to take their largest lead on another Shannon three, expanding the MACU edge to 58-38 with exactly a minute to go in the period.

However, the Lady Tigers caught fire in the final 1:49 as Central Christian made four three-pointers during that stretch and scored the final eight points in the final minute to close the gap to 58-46 heading into the final period of play.

Mid-America Christian was able to maintain its double-digit advantage for most of the fourth quarter as MACU stretched its lead back to 14 at 66-52 on an Endsley layup with 4:44 remaining.

The Lady Tigers strung together a late comeback, holding the Evangels scoreless over the a 3:34 stretch to put in 11 unanswered points to shrink their deficit to 66-63 with 1:25 to go.

A Wycoff free throw snapped the scoreless streak, but CCC's Holly Golden laid it in with a minute left on the ensuing possession to bring it back to a one-possession game at 67-65.

Instead of playing straight-up defense, the Lady Tigers elected to make the Evangels beat them from the free throw line, fouling Endsley with 45 seconds left. The junior guard buried both free throws to push the advantage back out to four.

The Evangels came up with a big defensive stop and then Shannon converted on one of two attempts after being fouled to increase the lead to 70-65 with 27 seconds to go.

Mid-America Christian came up with another big defensive stop, forcing a long Cheyenne Marshall three-pointer that sailed out of bounds. Wycoff was then fouled, knocking down both attempts with 13 seconds left to set the score to 72-65, putting it out of reach for the Lady Tigers.

Despite shooting just 38.7 percent from the field and 34.8 percent from the three-point arc, the Evangels' third-lowest shooting marks this season, Mid-America Christian put together its best game of the season from the foul line by converting on 17-of-23 (73.9 percent) attempts.

Hernandez's sharp-shooting carried over into this game, scoring 11 points on 4-of-9 from the field and 3-for-5 from the three-point arc to go with five boards while Loralei Siliga rounded out MACU's double-digit scoring with 10 points on 5-of-10 shooting and ripped down seven rebounds.

Mid-America Christian will be off for Thanksgiving break before returning to the court on Tuesday, Dec. 3 for a non-conference matchup with Nebraska Christian. Tip-off is slated for 6 p.m. at the Gaulke Activity Center.