OKLAHOMA CITY – Senior forward Alexis Shannon scored 26 points to become the Mid-America Christian women's basketball all-time leading scorer, leading the Evangels to a 93-84 victory over crosstown rival Southwestern Christian on Thursday night at the Gaulke Activity Center.

Shannon tallied her 26 points on 10-of-19 shooting, including going 2-for-5 from the three-point arc while ripping down 10 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the 2019-20 season to go with five assists.

Mid-America Christian (14-4, 7-2 Sooner Athletic Conference) was challenged by the Eagles midway through the first quarter, holding just a two-point edge at 11-9, but a Loralei Siliga jumper with 4:22 jumpstarted the Evangels offense.

MACU closed out the first quarter with 15 unanswered, capped off on a Siliga buzzer beating jumper off a missed free throw to send the Evangels into the second period with a 26-9 advantage.

The run continued well into the second quarter as the Evangels rattled off the first eight points with a Shannon layup giving MACU a 34-9 edge with 6:15 to go until the break.

Southwestern Christian (12-5, 4-5 SAC) found its footing on the offensive end following a Makenzie Janz bucket with 6:03 remaining, as the Eagles finished out the second quarter with a 15-7 run, closing the gap to 41-24 on a buzzer beater by Hannah Wade.

MACU was efficient on the offensive end, knocking down 15-for-30 (50 percent) from the field and 8-for-11 from the foul line while limiting the nation's best three-point shooting team to just 2-for-16 (12.5 percent) from beyond the arc and 9-for-29 (31 percent) from the field as a whole.

SCU continued to storm back in the third quarter, rattling off the first eight points to shrink the MACU advantage to nine before a Siliga three-point bomb stopped the run and pushed the lead back to 44-32 with 7:45 left.

After the Eagles shrank the edge back to nine with 5:22 to go, the Evangels once again surged away with 15 unanswered as another Shannon lay-in with just over two minutes left extended the lead to 65-41, tying MACU great Joie Mohr for third all-time on the MACU scoring list.

With 1:14 to go, Shannon surpassed the mark moments later, knocking down a free throw with 1:14 remaining.

Sophomore guard Anna Kash gave MACU its largest lead of the contest on a layup with 51 seconds left to bring the score to 70-44 before a Kylee Vestal free throw just before the end of the third quarter made it a 70-45 contest heading into the final period.

Early on in the fourth quarter, the Eagles chipped away over the course of the first 2:34, quietly stringing together an 11-2 run to cut their deficit to 72-56.

Mid-America Christian reclaimed the momentum when Shannon found Lexi Hernandez at the top of the key, draining a three-pointer with 7:07 to go. Jessica Fairley followed with a triple on the ensuing possession, helping MACU string together a 9-2 run to push the advantage back up to 81-58 with 5:48 left.

A three-point barrage by the Eagles over the next five minutes allowed SCU to climb back to within single digits with 13 seconds left, but it was too little too late as Siliga buried a pair of free throws with 10 seconds remaining to seal the 93-84 victory.

The Evangels finished the matchup with its sixth 50-percent or better shooting performance, going 29-for-58 (50 percent) from the field while continuing to stay hot from the free throw line, burying 28-for-36 (77.8 percent), their second-best clip of the season after knocking down 92.3 percent against Southwestern Assemblies of God last Saturday.

Four MACU players broke into double-figures as Siliga tied her career-high of 19 points on 7-for-9 from the field and 4-of-4 from the charity stripe to go with a pair of steals. Fairley racked up 14 points on 3-for-6 shooting, including 2-of-4 from beyond the arc and 6-of-6 from the foul line to go with seven rebounds and three assists.

Kash rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points off the bench on 4-of-7 shooting while Aaliyah Endsley notched a team-high seven assists on the evening.

Mid-America Christian will now prepare for its toughest test of the season as the Evangels will head uptown to take on No. 2 Oklahoma City on Saturday for a 2 p.m. tip-off at Abe Lemons Arena.