OKLAHOMA CITY – Senior forward Alexis Shannon recorded her eighth career 30-point game with 30 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Mid-America Christian women's basketball team to its second straight 3-0 start, knocking off NCAA Division II Oklahoma Christian 80-71 on Tuesday night at the Gaulke Activity Center.
Sophomore point guard Sydney Wycoff turned in an 18-point, seven-rebound performance on 5-of-8 shooting and going 4-for-7 from the three-point arc while Lexi Hernandez was a defensive force with a career-high six steals.
After giving up a three-pointer to open the game, the Evangels took over as they never trailed the rest of the way following three consecutive scores by Shannon to make it a 6-3 game with 7:28 to go. The Lady Eagles kept the game close, not allowing the Evangels to take larger than a five-point lead until Wycoff buried a three-pointer with 2:17 left followed by a free throw at the 1:35 mark to take their largest lead of the quarter at 17-11.
Oklahoma Christian chipped away at the MACU advantage over the next minute, trimming the deficit to one on a Tyra Peck three-pointer with 35 seconds left, but a driving layup by Aaliyah Endsley on the ensuing possession extended the MACU edge to 21-18 after one quarter of play.
OC cut the MACU lead back to one on a Katie Mayo lay-in with 9:20 to go, but the Mid-America Christian responded with seven unanswered thanks to a pair of three-pointers by Jessica Fairley and Rachel Tapps along with a Hernandez free throw to take its largest lead at 28-20 with 6:56 left until halftime.
The Evangels maintained its advantage until a Shannon pull-up into the paint made it a 35-27 score, but the Lady Eagles finished the half with some strong defense, not allowing Mid-America Christian another score in the final 2:43, slicing the MACU edge to 35-33 heading into the half.
Mid-America Christian came out of the locker room fired up right away in the second half, as the Evangels opened the third quarter with a 9-0 run on a pair of Shannon buckets, a Wycoff three-pointer and layup by Loralei Siliga to extend the advantage to 44-33 just three minutes in.
The Evangels built its lead to as much as 12 at the 2:35 mark on a pair of Rachel Tapps free throws to set the score at 49-37, but once again the Lady Eagles closed out the period strong, narrowing their deficit to 55-48 on a Peck last second layup to end the period.
The momentum carried with Oklahoma Christian into the fourth. The Lady Eagles rattled off a 9-2 run through the first 1:53 to tie the score at 57, prompting Evangels head coach Hannah Moeller to call a timeout to regroup.
Following the break, Mid-America Christian got back on track as Tapps and Wycoff combined to score the next seven points to push the MACU lead back out to seven at 64-57.
OC made one more strong run to trim the deficit to one at 68-67 with 4:37 remaining, but Shannon knocked down a pivotal three-pointer on the ensuing possession to ignite a 12-2 run over the next four minutes to pull away with the victory.
Despite Oklahoma Christian outshooting MACU by a 51-to-38.2 percent margin on the floor, the Evangels dominated the glass, outrebounding the Lady Eagles 44-30 with a 19-2 edge in offensive rebounds. The Evangels defense frustrated OC, forcing the Lady Eagles into committing 23 turnovers to just 16 for MACU.
Tapps turned in one of her strongest performances of the season, recording 12 points and seven rebounds to go with a team-high four assists to round out the MACU double-digit scorers.
Mid-America Christian will have a short turn-around as the Evangels will close out the week with a Texas road swing. MACU will head to Denton, Texas on Thursday, Nov. 7 for an exhibition match against NCAA Division I North Texas at 7 p.m. before making its way to Austin, Texas on Saturday for a 1 p.m. tip-off against Huston-Tillotson.
