SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. – Coming off its first home loss of the 2019-20 season, the Mid-America Christian women's basketball team was able to refocus on the road on Thursday night. The Evangels went into Bill George Arena and came away with an 83-75 victory at John Brown to sweep the regular season series against the Golden Eagles.
Junior guard Lexi Hernandez led Mid-America Christian (15-6, 8-4 Sooner Athletic Conference) with a career-high 24 points, 19 of which came in the first half on 8-of-12 shooting, 5-of-8 from three-point range and 3-for-4 from the foul line.
The first quarter was tightly contested through the first 5:20 as a layup by JBU's Maddie Altman kept the MACU lead to just two at 14-12, but the Evangels surged away over the final four-plus minutes. Alexis Shannon knocked down a baseline layup with 4:17 to go to start a 7-1 run that was finished off on another Shannon bucket, extending the MACU edge to 21-13 with 2:34 to go.
JBU's Marta Matamala briefly stopped the run with a three on the other end, but the Evangels closed out the quarter with another 7-1 run featuring a Shannon layup, a Hernandez three and an Ossyana Ozoani score to take a 28-17 lead into the second quarter.
Hernandez went toe-to-toe with the Eagles' Ally Teague and Marta Matamala from three the early going of the second quarter, but an Anna Kash triple on the right side ignited an 8-0 run over a 3:19 stretch. Ozoani finished off the run with a strong offensive rebound and putback to give MACU its largest lead of the ballgame at 47-28 with 1:13 left.
John Brown (6-14, 2-9 SAC) managed to muster a couple of scores in the final minute against the tough Evangels defense to trim the MACU advantage to 47-32 at the break.
Mid-America Christian went into the halftime locker room with a huge shooting advantage, knocking down 59.4 percent of its shots from the floor and 53.8 percent from the three-point arc. On the flip side, the Golden Eagles could only muster 39.3 percent from the field as a whole and just 33.3 percent from three.
The Evangels were able to push the edge back out to 19 to start the third quarter on a pair of Loralei Siliga free throws and a Shannon lay-in to bring the score to 51-32 just 68 seconds in.
The Golden Eagles were able to fight back with an 8-2 run to close the gap to 53-40 with 7:05 to go, but MACU was able to turn the tide back with an 9-4 run, finished off on an Ozoani layup to set the score to 62-44 with 1:41 left.
John Brown was able to close the gap back down to 14, but as time was winding down, Hernandez to drew a foul on a strong take to the basket with 1.8 seconds left. The Canyon, Texas native knocked down a pair of free throws to extend the edge back to 64-48 after three quarters of play.
Mid-America Christian maintained the momentum for most of the fourth period as an Endsley steal led to a Hernandez fastbreak layup to bring the score to 72-54 with 6:43 remaining.
The Evangels maintained their double-digit lead most of the way as a pair of Rachel Tapps free throws gave MACU an 80-65 advantage with 1:36 remaining before the Golden Eagles started storming back.
JBU rattled off nine unanswered over the next 55 seconds to shrink the deficit to 81-75, but the Evangels clamped down on the defensive end over the final 41 seconds by not allowing another Golden Eagles score.
Despite some ice cold shooting from three in the second half, going 0-for-6, Mid-America Christian dominated inside the arc by knocking down 12-for-20 (60 percent) on two-point attempts to finish 53.4 percent from the field.
Siliga was one of three Evangels to break into double-figures with 17 points on 6-for-9 from the field and 5-of-6 from the charity stripe to go with six rebounds and two steals. Shannon joined her with 17 of her own on 7-of-15 shooting.
Ozoani just missed breaking into double-digits off the MACU bench with nine points and six rebounds. After missing the last eight weeks, sophomore guard Sydney Wycoff made her return to the Evangels lineup, scoring a point and recording a steal in 11 minutes of work.
Mid-America Christian will now return to the Gaulke Activity Center for a three-game home stand as the Evangels will start it off against Bacone College at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 1.
