OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mid-America Christian women's basketball team will wrap up a challenging three-game road stand as the Evangels will head to Fort Worth, Texas on Thursday, Jan. 16 for a 6 p.m. tip against Texas Wesleyan before returning home on Saturday to take on Southwestern Assemblies of God at 2 p.m. inside the Gaulke Activity Center.
LAST TIME OUT
Mid-America Christian (12-3, 5-1 Sooner Athletic Conference) split its road series last week, dropping its first SAC game of the season at No. 6 Wayland Baptist 93-71 on Thursday, Jan. 9 before bouncing back with a 79-53 victory at Oklahoma Panhandle State. In the win at OPSU, the 26-point margin of victory was the largest the Evangels have had against the Aggies in the NAIA era, surpassing the 84-61 win back on Feb. 17, 2018 in the Gaulke Activity Center. Senior forward Alexis Shannon was particularly sharp, tallying 25 points on 11-of-16 shooting from the floor.
SCOUTING THE LADY RAMS
Texas Wesleyan makes its way into the weekend with a 9-4 overall record and are 4-2 in SAC play, just a half-game back of MACU and Wayland Baptist for second in the conference. The Lady Rams split their matchups last week, dropping an 83-66 decision at No. 2 Oklahoma City on Thursday before bouncing back with an 82-77 win at home against Southwestern Christian on Saturday.
The balanced TWU scoring lineup is led by senior guard Destiney Winkfield, averaging 13.2 points per game while dishing out a team-leading 48 assists. Scoring just one less point is senior guard Nicole Gleason, who's 13.2 ppg comes off a 40.5 percent shooting clip while leading the team in three-pointers (37), rebounds (91, 7 rpg) as well as blocks (11) and steals (33).
HISTORY WITH THE LADY RAMS
The Evangels have had a great deal of success against the Rams in the NAIA era, winning 12 of the previous 15 matchups since 2009-10 season. MACU has won six of the last seven against Texas Wesleyan with the lone loss coming in a 79-73 affair in Fort Worth last season on Dec. 15, 2018. In their previous meeting back on Jan. 31, 2019, the Evangels rebounded from the earlier season loss with a 72-60 victory. In the win, Shannon recorded a double-double with 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting to go with 11 rebounds.
SCOUTING THE LADY LIONS
Southwestern Assemblies of God enters Thursday with a 7-6 overall record and a 2-4 mark against conference foes. The Lady Lions have struggled lately, dropping three of their last four matchups, including a pair of losses at Southwestern Christian (75-63) and at home to No. 2 Oklahoma City (85-70) last week.
SAGU is led by two of the top scorers in the conference in senior guard Lexi Rich and junior guard Sydney Meador. Rich ranks fourth in the league at 17.4 ppg while converting a team-leading 39-for-125 (31.2 percent) from the three-point arc and a blistering 37-of-40 (92.5 percent) from the foul line. Rich is also the team's top distributor with 42 assists.
Meador isn't far behind in the scoring column, averaging 17.2 ppg on an efficient shooting clip of 41.1 percent from the field, 40.7 percent from the three-point arc and converts on 82.9 percent of her foul shots. Leading the Lady Lions on the glass is junior forward Alexis Casher, who is ripping down the second-most rebounds in the SAC at 9.7 rpg.
HISTORY WITH THE LADY LIONS
MACU and SAGU have been evenly matched during the NAIA era as the Evangels hold a slight 9-8 edge since the 2007-08 season. However, the Evangels will be looking at snapping a two-game losing streak to the Lady Lions after dropping the previous matchups in Waxahachie, Texas 68-64 on Feb. 2, 2019 and 73-70 on Feb. 26, 2019. Although, the last time the two teams met in the Gaulke Activity Center, MACU rolled for a 96-72 victory on Dec. 13, 2018.
ON THE CUSP OF A MILESTONE
Entering Thursday night's game, senior forward Alexis Shannon is on the cusp of scoring her 1500th career point at Mid-America Christian. The Noblesville, Ind. product currently sits at 1498 points and is the program's fourth all-time leading scorer, most recently surpassing MACU all-time great Angela Holley in the win at Oklahoma Panhandle State. Shannon is in hot pursuit of Joie Mohr for the program's third-best career scoring mark, sitting just 69 points behind the two-time NCCAA All-American.
GOING TO THE GLASS
Mid-America Christian has been one of the best rebounding teams in the country at the midway point of the 2019-20 season, as the Evangels currently rank fifth in the NAIA at 45.8 rebounds per contest. The Evangels also possess the 10th best margin, outrebounding their opponents by 8.5 rpg. It has been a collective team effort for MACU on the glass as six players are averaging five or more rebounds per game.
The Evangels are led by two of the program's best rebounders in program history in Alexis Shannon and Jessica Fairley. Shannon, who is the program's NAIA era career rebounding leader with 628 boards, leads this year's squad with 112 rebounds (7.5 rpg). Fairley, who surpassed the 500-career rebounds milestone against Wayland Baptist last Thursday and is currently the fourth-leading rebounder in the NAIA era, ranks second on the squad with 94 (6.3 rpg).
TAILOR-MADE TOTS
On Saturday, Mid-America Christian will be hosting a pair of halftime performances by Teams of Tomorrow (TOT). Approximately 80 pre-school children will be performing ball handling skills at halftime of both the women's and men's games.
