OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mid-America Christian women's basketball team struggled to slow down a red hot-shooting No. 5 Wayland Baptist as the Evangels fell 103-69 to the Flying Queens on Saturday afternoon in the Gaulke Activity Center.
Mid-America Christian (17-7, 9-5 Sooner Athletic Conference) couldn't contain a balanced Wayland Baptist (21-2, 13-1 SAC) lineup that had five players score in double-figures.
Senior forward Alexis Shannon led the MACU scoring efforts with 24 points on 8-for-18 shooting, including 3-for-7 from three and 5-for-6 from the charity stripe to go with seven rebounds.
The Evangels gave the Flying Queens a strong challenge in the early going. A Shannon score and free throw along with an Aaliyah Endsley bucket gave MACU an early 5-3 edge with 7:20 left in before Wayland rattled off seven unanswered in less than a minute to take a 10-5 lead.
MACU chipped away at the lead over the next few minutes as threes by Lexi Hernandez and Shannon along with an Ossyana Ozoani layup trimmed the deficit to one before a Shannon layup put the Evangels in-front 15-14 with 4:25 to go.
Shannon knocked down a pair of free throws and a layup after a Wayland Baptist score to build a 19-16 advantage with 3:28 remaining, but WBU found its rhythm by rattling off 11 of the next 13 points to grab a 27-21 lead with 1:32 left in the quarter.
A pair of Ozoani free throws cut the WBU lead to four, but the Flying Queens extended its advantage to seven after one quarter on a Jenna Cooper three with 58 seconds to go.
Wayland Baptist held a slight edge through the first 3:21 as a Kambrey Blankey score in the paint made it a 36-28 game, but the Evangels surged back on a Jessica Fairley three that rattled in from the left wing followed by a Ozoani jumper from the left side, trimming the deficit to 36-33 with 5:42 to go until the break.
However, the Evangels went ice cold from the floor the remainder of the half as the Flying Queens closed out the half with a 13-0 run to take a 49-33 lead into the halftime break.
Wayland Baptist shot 19-for-42 (45.2 percent) from the field in the opening half, including 6-for-14 (42.9 percent) from three while the Evangels could only muster 11-for-34 (32.4 percent) shooting and 4-for-16 (25 percent) from three against the Flying Queens defense.
The Evangels were able to hang around for most of the third quarter as Endsley's layup brought the score to 59-44 with 3:49 left, but once again, WBU closed out the quarter with 12 unanswered to take a 71-44 advantage into the fourth quarter.
Mid-America Christian got into an offensive flow in the fourth quarter, but Wayland Baptist still managed to outscore MACU 32-25 in the period to secure the 103-69 win.
The Evangels could do little to deter the Flying Queens offensive attack in the second half as WBU shot 19-for-35 (54.3 percent), which included a blistering 10-for-18 (55.6 percent) from three. Mid-America Christian shot slightly better in the second half, going 11-for-30 (36.7 percent) from the floor and 4-of-14 (28.6 percent) from beyond the arc, but couldn't quite stay in-stride with the Flying Queens.
The only other Evangel to crack double-figures in scoring outside of Shannon was Ozoani off the MACU bench, tallying 11 points on 3-of-7 shooting and 5-for-5 from the charity stripe. Endsley dished out a team-high four assists while Hernandez notched a pair of steals on the defensive end.
With the loss, the Evangels are currently in the No. 4 spot in the Sooner Athletic Conference standings, just a half-game back of Science & Arts and a half-game ahead of Southwestern Christian with six game left in the conference season.
Mid-America Christian will return to action on Thursday, Feb. 13 as the Evangels will head to Waxahachie, Texas for a 6 p.m. matchup against Southwestern Assemblies of God.
