OKLAHOMA CITY – Five Evangels scored in double-digits as the Mid-America Christian women's basketball team locked down defensively over the final few minutes to pull away with an 80-65 victory over Evangel in its first contest of the 2
nd Annual MACU Classic inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Friday night.
TOP PERFORMERS
- Whitney Outon – 22 Points, 8-14 FG, 2-5 3FG, 10 Reb, 2 Steals
- Jaci Littell – 15 Points, 4-11 FG, 6-8 FT, 4 Steals, 2 Assists
- Kyleigh Leverich – 10 Points, 8-10 FT, 8 Reb, 5 Assists
GAME SUMMARY
- First Quarter
- Mid-America Christian got off to a fast start as a pair of MACU steals by Sydney Wycoff and Jaci Littell led to transition buckets in the first minute, but Evangel battled back to take a 5-4 lead on Micah Clayton's three-pointer with 7:27 remaining.
- Whitney Outon drained a tightly contested triple from the right wing on the ensuing possession to ignite a 10-point Evangels run as a Littell three-ball, an Aneli Thomsen jumper and a pair of Kyleigh Leverich foul shots with 4:42 to go swelled the MACU advantage to 14-5.
- After Evangel's Lyla Watson knocked down a three to close the gap, the Evangels built their lead out to seven off another Outon triple as Littell's steal and fastbreak layup made it a 21-8 game with 2:18 left.
- The Valor closed out the quarter by putting together an 8-1 run to trim the gap down to 22-16 on a pair of Kate Gilbert free throws with 16 seconds remaining.
- Second Quarter
- MACU managed to build the lead back to double-figures to start the second period as an Alexis Borgstadt tip-in and a pair of Shy Christopher buckets stretched the edge to 28-16 with 8:02 on the clock.
- The EU defense was able to lock down on MACU over the next three minutes as the Valor rattled off seven straight to close it to 28-23 on Lexi Berry's baseline pull-up jumper with 5:03 to go.
- The Evangels once again worked their lead back to double-digits by outscoring Evangel 7-2 over the next few minutes as Leverich found Littell on an inbounds play as the junior guard got a left-handed hook shot to fall with 2:28 left to bring it to a 35-25 score.
- Mid-America Christian was unable to build any more to their advantage over the final two minutes as EU closed out the period by outscoring MACU 6-2 to close the gap to 37-31 heading into the halftime break.
- Third Quarter
- Evangel was finally able to bring back to a one-possession game within the first minute as the Valor scored four of the first five points to make it a 38-35 game on Alexis Roach's lay-in.
- Mid-America Christian slowly built its lead back over the next four minutes as Outon scored quickly on the ensuing possession to start a string of six straight as Christopher went coast-to-coast after gathering a defensive board to stretch the lead to 44-35 with 5:04 to go.
- Evangel fought back by closing to three on two more occasions, the last coming on an Alexis Cauthon layup with 2:42 remaining to set the score to 49-46.
- Tyaija Coleman invigorated the Evangels offense down the stretch as the Oral Roberts transfer scored seven points during an 11-4 surge to close out the half.
- On the final possession, Leverich was able to run down a long rebound on Outon's missed free throw with nine seconds left before getting the ball to Christopher at the top of the key. Driving down the right side, Christopher cut into the lane and got the left-handed finger roll layup to drop at the buzzer to send MACU into the fourth quarter with a 60-50 advantage.
- Fourth Quarter
- The momentum carried over for MACU at the start of the fourth as Outon buried a baseline jumper off a Christopher dish before burying a pair of foul shots on the ensuing possession to increase the Evangels' edge to 64-50 with 8:49 to go.
- Both teams played stifling defense over the next five minutes as neither team was able to score more than six points during this stretch, but the Valor managed to put together a late 7-1 surge as a Paiton Acord bucket closed it to a 69-63 contest with just 1:19 left.
- EU tried to foul early to force the Evangels to beat them from the foul line over the final 1:14, but the strategy didn't pay off as MACU went 11-of-14 from the foul line while the Valor could only score once down the stretch as the Evangels pulled away with the 80-65 victory.
GAME NOTES
- It was a tough shooting night for both teams as Mid-America Christian finished 25-of-71 (35.2 percent) from the field and 4-for-21 (19 percent) from the three-point arc while Evangel went 26-for-71 (36.6 percent) on shot attempts and 7-of-23 (30.4 percent) from range.
- The Evangels were opportunistic in getting to the foul line as MACU went 26-for-38 (68.4 percent) from the charity stripe while the Valor only converted on 6-of-13 (46.2 percent) attempts.
- The biggest X-factor for the Evangels in the contest was their ability to get on the glass as MACU outrebounded the Valor by an astounding 60-38 margin, which included a 25-15 edge on the offensive glass. Both teams struggled in the turnover battle as each team tallied 23 giveaways.
- Graduate student forward Whitney Outon came up big for the Evangels by scoring a game-high 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting and went 2-for-5 from three while recording her first double-double with MACU, tying a team-high 10 boards. Sydney Wycoff also pulled down 10 rebounds for MACU to finish just one shy of her career-high.
- The reigning SAC Player of the Week Jaci Littell put together another strong effort offensively and defensively by scoring 15 points as she went 4-for-11 from the field and 6-of-8 from the foul line to go with a team-best four steals.
- Kyleigh Leverich and Tyaija Coleman provided a major spark off the MACU bench as each player poured in 10 points. Leverich scored most of her points from the charity stripe by going 8-for-10 to go with eight rebounds and a team-high five assists while Coleman provided her double-digit output on 2-of-5 shooting and 5-for-6 from the line to go with seven boards.
- Shy Christopher rounded out MACU's double-digit scorers with 12 points to go along with five rebounds and three assists.
- MACU won just its second ever meeting against Evangel. The last time the two teams met, the Evangels rallied to come away with an 89-86 overtime victory over the Valor inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Nov. 1, 2019.
- With the win, Mid-America Christian improved to 3-0 on the season while Evangel fell to 0-3.
UP NEXT
- Mid-America Christian will close out the MACU Classic against Oklahoma Wesleyan for a 2 p.m. tip-off inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Saturday.
