OKLAHOMA CITY – After suffering back-to-back losses, the Mid-America Christian women's basketball team bounced back in a pivotal Sooner Athletic Conference matchup at home against Texas Wesleyan on Saturday. The Evangels defense stifled the Lady Rams comeback efforts in the final two minutes to hang on for an 83-77 victory.
The win was a crucial one for Mid-America Christian (18-8, 10-6 SAC) as a Texas Wesleyan (13-10, 8-8 SAC) win would've brought the Evangels, Rams and Southwestern Christian (17-7, 9-7 SAC) into a three-way tie for fourth with just four games left in the regular season. Instead, MACU maintained its No. 4 spot outright.
Senior forward Alexis Shannon led four Evangels into double-figures with 20 points on 8-of-17 shooting to go with six rebounds, three assists and three steals. Senior guard Rachel Tapps added a career-high 17 on 4-of-5 shooting and 8-for-9 from the free throw line, along with six rebounds and two assists.
The Lady Rams scored the first bucket of the game, but the Evangels responded with an eight unanswered run, six of which coming off Shannon shots to take an 8-2 advantage with 6:22 to go in the first quarter.
Texas Wesleyan fought its way back, taking a one-point lead at 16-15 on a Nicole Gleason three with 3:52 remaining.
However, Mid-America Christian clamped down on the defensive end, not allowing a single Lady Rams point the rest of the way while stringing together a 7-0 run, capped off on Ossyana Ozoani's shot-clock beating layup with four seconds left to hold a 22-16 advantage after one.
The Lady Rams came out firing in the second quarter, scoring the first seven points in a 9-2 run to reclaim a 25-24 lead just over two minutes in, but MACU swung back with five unanswered of its own to take back the 29-25 advantage with 6:23 to go.
The Evangels saw their lead shrink to as little as one at 29-28 with 4:29 remaining, but MACU closed out the period by scoring 13 of the final 16 points. Jessica Fairley came up with two big plays in the final minute, capping MACU's scoring run with a strong take down the middle of the paint for a tightly contested left-hand layup, bringing the score to 42-31. The Lady Rams had an opportunity to cut the MACU lead to single digits on the final possession of the half, but Fairley was able to poke the interior pass away for a steal as the horn sounded.
Despite some cold shooting from three for Mid-America Christian in the opening half, going just 1-for-8 (12.5 percent), the Evangels were effective inside the arc by shooting 14-for-24 to finish 15-for-32 (46.9 percent) overall from the field and knocked down 11-of-12 (91.7 percent) from the charity stripe.
Texas Wesleyan briefly cut its deficit to single digits to open the second half, but MACU countered with seven unanswered on a Shannon three-point play and a pair of Aaliyah Endsley scores to make it a 49-33 game with 7:19 left in the quarter.
Endsley gave MACU its largest lead later in the quarteron an incredible scoop shot layup on a fastbreak with 1:10 to go, setting the score to 62-44, but a Texas Wesleyan three by Darby Pugh with 40 seconds left cut the MACU lead to 63-48 heading into the fourth period.
Anna Kash opened the final period with a tremendous floater off the glass to bring the score to 65-48. The Lady Rams were able to claw their way back to make it a 10-point advantage, but Kash was able to draw fouls and back-to-back possessions and knock down four straight free throws to make it a 71-57 game with just over six minutes to go.
The Lady Rams pieced together an 8-0 run to shrink the MACU lead to six, but the Evangels were quickly able to push the advantage back to doubleidigits on layups by Lexi Hernandez and Loralei Siliga, setting the score to 75-65 with 4:05 remaining.
Texas Wesleyan retaliated by scoring 10 of the next 12 as a Hailee Walls three-point play trimmed the MACU advantage to 77-75 with just under two minutes remaining.
However, Kash came up with another important Evangels score, driving down the left side and scooping a right-handed layup just over the TWU block attempt to push the advantage back to two possessions.
With 38 seconds remaining, Kash made yet another phenomenal play, wrapping a pass to Siliga on the drive down the middle of the paint and she laid it in to extend the MACU lead to 81-75.
The Evangels got the stop on the ensuing possession as Siliga came down with the rebound and MACU sealed the game from the free throw line before completing the 83-77 victory.
Overall, Mid-America Christian shot 28-of-61 (45.9 percent) from the floor, but still couldn't get the three-pointers to fall in the second half to finish 2-for-19 (10.5 percent) from beyond the arc. However, the Evangels did put together one of its best free throw shooting games of the season, knocking down 25-for-31 (80.6 percent) from the charity stripe.
Kash joined Shannon and Tapps in double-figures with 13 points on 3-of-4 from the field and 7-for-10 from the foul line. Ozoani rounded out the four in double-digits, scoring 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting and 4-for-4 from the charity stripe to go with 12 rebounds for her first double-double of the season.
Mid-America Christian will seek a major upset on Thursday, Feb. 20 as the Evangels will be hosting the No. 1 team in the country, Oklahoma City. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. inside the Gaulke Activity Center.
