PLAINVIEW, Texas – The Mid-America Christian women's basketball team saw its Sooner Athletic Conference winning streak come to an end as the Evangels could not overcome a blistering start by No. 6 Wayland Baptist, falling by a score of 93-71 on Thursday night at the Hutcherson Center.
Senior forward Alexis Shannon led the Evangels, finishing just a rebound shy of a double-double with 17 points on 8-of-17 from the field with nine boards and a pair of steals. Freshman guard Anna Kash notched her second double-digit performance of her early MACU career, tallying 10 points off the Evangels bench.
Mid-America Christian (11-3, 4-1 SAC) struggled to slow down the red-hot shooting Wayland Baptist (11-2, 4-1 SAC) in the first quarter as the Flying Queens went 11-for-19 from the field and 6-of-10 from three to hand MACU a 31-11 deficit after one quarter of play.
Mid-America Christian got off to a strong start to the second period as back-to-back by Aaliyah Endsley and Shannon ignited an 8-3 run through the first 2:34 to shrink the deficit to 34-19.
Wayland Baptist pushed its edge out to as much as 24 at 47-23 with 1:07 to go, but MACU was able to close out the half strong with three-pointers by Rachel Tapps and Shannon on consecutive possessions to make it a 47-29 game at the halftime break.
The Flying Queens continued to push their advantage back over 20 in the third quarter as MACU could only narrow the deficit to as little as 17 on a Kash three-pointer from the right wing with 4:11 remaining in the period, setting the score to 61-44.
WBU stretched its lead back to 24, getting a score on the final possession of the period to take a 73-49 edge into the fourth quarter.
Mid-America Christian struggled to slow down the Flying Queens the rest of the way as Wayland Baptist held on to win by a final score of 93-71.
The Evangels offensively struggled against the length on the Wayland Baptist defense, limited to just 26-of-74 (35.1 percent) shooting and 8-for-31 (25.8 percent) from the three-point arc while the Flying Queens finished 33-for-71 (46.5 percent) from the floor and 14-of-35 (40 percent) from beyond the arc.
Mid-America Christian will look to try to get back on the winning track on Saturday as the Evangels will head to Goodwell, Okla. for a 2 p.m. matchup against Oklahoma Panhandle State.
