OKLAHOMA CITY - Thursday night's women's basketball game between the Mid-America Christian University Evangels and the John Brown University Golden Eagles was a tightly contested, defensive affair for most of the night. More often than not in such games, the team that turns the ball over fewer times will win the contest, and that was once again the case on this night.
MACU (18-7, 12-7 SAC) turned the ball over only nine times in the game, while they forced 19 JBU (15-11, 11-8 SAC) turnovers, and MACU survived a scare at home to beat the Golden Eagles 59-57 and earn a season series split.
JBU opened the game on a 7-2 run and they led the game for the first six and a half minutes, but MACU was able to wrestle the lead away for the first time on a fast break bucket from Shaylan Coleman with 3:37 to play in the opening quarter. After JBU reclaimed the lead on a jumper from Baily Cameron, Alexis Shannon scored five straight points to help MACU take a 17-15 lead after 10 minutes of play.
The Golden Eagles scored the first four points of the second frame, but MACU answered with a 12-0 run to take a 29-19 lead and it looked like MACU might be off and running. JBU, though, bounced back with seven unanswered points to close the half, and at the break, MACU was clinging to a 29-26 lead.
A 9-1 JBU spurt to open the third quarter gave the Golden Eagles a 5-point lead - their largest of the game - but JBU's Cameron picked up her third foul early in the frame, and she was relegated to the bench. MACU see-sawed back in front in the middle stages of the third stanza, and a layup from Darby Price gave MACU a 41-37 lead with 4:12 to go in the third. JBU rallied, though, and it took a 3-pointer from MACU's Jessica Fairley with just two seconds left in the third to give MACU a 44-42 lead headed into the final period.
JBU led twice early in the fourth frame, but again a MACU run - this one a 9-0 spurt - appeared to give MACU control of the game as the Evangels took a 54-47 lead with 4:31 to go on a 3-pointer from Sydney Wycoff. JBU, though, put together one last surge, scoring eight straight points to claim the lead back for the final time with 2:22 to go in the game, but by that time, Cameron had fouled out of the game, and MACU took full advantage. MACU scored took the lead into the final 15 seconds, and the Evangels survived a three shot free throw opportunity, and after a missed MACU free throw at the other end, a traveling violation with less than a second left in the game squelched JBU's last chance as MACU claimed the win, 59-57.
MACU's scoring balance was impressive, considering the low scoring nature of the contest. The Evangels had four players in double-figures in the game, led by 15 from Fairley. Coleman scored 13 in the game, and Shannon and Price added 10 apiece. Coleman notched her third double-double of the season, and she flirted with another triple-double just one week after she bacame the first MACU women's player in the NAIA era to record one, with 12 rebounds and seven assists. She also added three blocked shots in the game.
MACU did not shoot the ball particularly well from the floor, making only 20 of 68 (29.4%) shots in the game. The Evangels were 7-for-19 (36.8%) from long range, and at the line, MACU struggled mightily, making only 12 of 21 (57.1%) charity tosses in the game. MACU wom the game almost exclusively with fast break points off turnovers. MACU scored all 10 fast break points in the game, and they out-scored JBU 17-11 off turnovers.
The Evangels will look to keep the pressure on teams above them in the Sooner Athletic Conference standings on Saturday when they head to Muskogee, Oklahoma. There, the Evangels will take on the Bacone College Warriors (0-22, 0-19 SAC) at 2 p.m.
