OKLAHOMA CITY – In a late addition to the 2020-21 schedule, the Mid-America Christian women's basketball team will host Baptist Bible College (Mo.) at the Gaulke Activity Center at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.
LAST TIME OUT
Mid-America Christian (1-0) renewed its rivalry against Oklahoma Wesleyan on Oct. 23 as the Evangels opened the 2020-21 season with a high scoring 102-93 victory at the Gaulke Activity Center.
The new-look Evangels had balanced scoring across the board in the contest with six players scoring in double-figures, led by junior transfer forward Presley Payahsape with 20 points after going 5-for-6 from beyond the arc. Senior guard Lexi Hernandez also had a strong return to the Evangels from the 2019-20 season, scoring 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting, went 3-of-5 from three, 4-for-4 from the free throw arc and finished with six rebounds, three assists and three steals.
True freshman forward Shelby Kraus also had a stellar debut, as the six-footer recorded a double-double with 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting to go with 10 boards. Aaliyah Endsley, Anna Kash and McKenzi Lamer rounded out the double-figure scorers with 14, 12 and 10 points respectively.
As a team, the Evangels shot 31-for-60 (51.7 percent) from the field, 12-of-25 (48 percent) from beyond the arc and 28-for-39 (71.8 percent) from the charity stripe while limiting OKWU to 34-of-78 (43.6 percent) shooting and 15-for-40 (37.5 percent) from three.
SCOUTING THE PATRIOTS
Baptist Bible (0-1) officially opened the season on Monday, falling in a 79-66 home matchup against Avila (Mo.) and will be facing MACU's Sooner Athletic Conference rival Southwestern Christian tonight in an exhibition matchup.
HISTORY WITH THE PATRIOTS
Mid-America Christian will be renewing its rivalry against Baptist Bible as the two teams will be facing each other for the first time since the Evangels joined the NAIA. The two teams were common foes when MACU still competed at the NCCAA Division II level, going 8-0 against the Patriots from 2003-2007.
The last time the two teams met was back on Feb. 2, 2007, as the Evangels went into Springfield, Missouri and came away with a 70-43 road victory. When the two teams last competed at the Gaulke Activity Center, MACU dominated the matchup with an 89-41 win.
CAN'T PRESSURE PRESLEY
In her Mid-America Christian debut, Presley Payahsape wowed with an incredible shooting performance from beyond the arc, knocking down 5-of-6 and scoring a team-high 20 points in the victory over Oklahoma Wesleyan on Saturday. The five triples matched the best output by any individual player last season and is the first person to make that many and miss only one attempt since Rachel Tapps drained 5-of-6 against Central Christian on Senior Night in a 114-73 victory on Feb. 27.
BALANCING ACT
With the graduation of three-time All-American Alexis Shannon, who was the second-most prolific scorer in the NAIA a season ago, the 2020-21 Mid-America Christian women's basketball team will be looking to be more balanced across the board with their scoring. In the debut against Oklahoma Wesleyan, the Evangels accomplished just that with six players scoring in double-figures and at least seven players scored eight points or more. The last time MACU had six or more break double-figures was in last season's record-setting debut against Manhattan Christian. By scoring a program NAIA era record 130 points in the victory, the Evangels had eight players score 10 or more points.
