OKLAHOMA CITY – The MACU women's basketball team put together a balanced offensive effort with six players scoring in double-figures as the Evangels held off an Oklahoma Wesleyan rally to capture an 89-76 victory in the MACU Classic finale inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Friday.
TOP PERFORMERS
- Shy Christopher – 16 Points, 6-15 FG, 3-4 FT, 7 Reb, 4 Assists
- Sydney Wycoff – 12 Points, 5-7 FG, 2-3 FT, 9 Reb, 2 Assists
- Ashley Hopper – 10 Points, 4-7 FG, 9 Reb, 3 Blocks
GAME SUMMARY
- First Quarter
- It was a back-and-forth battle through the first four minutes as the two teams exchanged six leads and four ties before a Jessa Gilyard fastbreak layup gave Oklahoma Wesleyan the 11-9 lead with 6:26 to go.
- The Evangels bursted out in-front as Sydney Wycoff converted a three-point play after drawing a foul before Kyleigh Leverich drained a three from the left corner off a good find from Shy Christopher from the top of the key to make it a 15-11 MACU edge with 5:21 left.
- Oklahoma Wesleyan managed to briefly snag the lead back following a pair of Sydnee Schovanec foul shots to cap a 7-2 surge to make it an 18-17 game with 3:13 on the clock.
- MACU scored six straight as an Ashley Hopper layup, a Jaci Littell three-ball and an Alexis Borgstadt free throw swelled the MACU edge to five, but the Eagles closed it to two at the end of the period after Gracie Alexander buried a midrange jumper to set the score to 23-21.
- Second Quarter
- Mid-America Christian opened the second period with all of the momentum as Littell and Christopher combined to score nine straight points for the Evangels to start it off before Sydney Wycoff found Aneli Thomsen open for a midrange jumper off an inbound pass to stretch the MACU advantage to 34-21 with 6:35 remaining.
- OKWU briefly closed the gap to single-digits after scoring six of the next eight, but the Evangels pushed it back out to 13 following a pair of Hopper foul shots and a Wycoff offense board and putback, setting the score to 40-27 at the 3:50 mark
- MACU built its lead out to as much as 14 at 45-31 with 1:28 to go when Alexis Borgstadt found Kyleigh Leverich open for a wide open three from the left corner.
- Ty'Nahjah Mitchell briefly closed it to 11 after converting a three-point play with six seconds left, but Camryn Armes drew a foul with 0.5 seconds left and knocked down one of two free throws to send MACU into the break with a 46-34 advantage.
- Third Quarter
- Oklahoma Wesleyan opened the second half with a three-ball from Cierra Johnson to bring the lead back down to single-digits, but the Evangels quickly built its largest lead of the contest at 56-40 with 7:12 remaining following a 10-3 streak capped off on Christopher's defensive rebound and coast-to-coast fall-away, left-handed layup.
- The Eagles surged back by scoring 10 straight as Schovanec's freebie with 5:03 to go made it a 56-50 game.
- MACU managed to build the lead back to 14 at 66-52 at the 3:03 mark as a 10-2 run was closed out on Borgstadt's wide-open triple from the top of the key on the fast break dish from Christopher on the left wing.
- OKWU managed to contain the Evangels to just two points over the final three minutes as the Eagles brought it down to a 68-57 edge following a pair of Gilyard free throws with 48 seconds left.
- Fourth Quarter
- A Gracie Alexander three-ball to start the fourth allowed the Eagles to close the MACU advantage down to single-digits, but MACU brought it back into double-digits following a pair of Leverich foul shots and a Hopper put-back layup with 7:57 remaining to set the score to 72-60.
- Oklahoma Wesleyan immediately countered with a 5-0 streak on a River Jeffries three and a pair of Johnson free throws to bring it to 72-65 with 6:57 left, but that would be the closest OKWU would bring it for the rest of the contest.
- With just over two minutes left, Whitney Outon came alive on the offensive end as she scored three straight Evangels buckets during a 6-2 run before Christopher traded buckets with OKWU's Gilyard and Mitchell to ultimately wrap-up an 89-76 final.
GAME NOTES
- Mid-America Christian efficiently shot 33-of-68 (48.5 percent) from the field and 9-for-22 (40.9 percent) from the three-point arc while converting on 14-of-20 (70 percent) of its foul shots. Meanwhile, Oklahoma Wesleyan finished 26-for-62 (41.9 percent) from the floor, 8-of-25 (32 percent) from range and efficiently converted 16-for-21 (76.2 percent) from the free throw line.
- While Oklahoma Wesleyan won the turnover battle by a 14-11 edge, the Evangels were the more dominant team on the glass with a 43-32 rebounding margin.
- The Evangels placed six players in double-digit scoring and narrowly missed having seven crack double-figures with Whitney Outon finishing with nine points on 4-of-6 shooting.
- Shy Christopher led all Evangels with a game-high 16 points on 6-of-15 from the field and 3-for-4 from the line to go with seven rebounds and a team-high four assists.
- Kyleigh Leverich came off the MACU bench to score 13 points on 4-of-8 shooting, including going 3-for-5 from downtown to go with a pair of assists.
- Sydney Wycoff and Ashley Hopper each narrowly missed recording double-doubles as Wycoff scored 12 points after knocking down 5-of-7 shots to go with nine boards and two assists while the freshman forward scored 10 off the MACU bench on 4-for-7 shooting along with nine rebounds and three blocks.
- Jaci Littell and Alexis Borgstadt rounded out MACU's double-digit scorers with Littell scoring all 11 of her points in the first half off 4-of-8 shooting and 3-for-5 on three-balls while Borgstadt scored her 10 on 3-of-5 from the field and went 3-for-4 from the charity stripe.
- With the win, Mid-America Christian improved to 5-2 all-time against Oklahoma Wesleyan and have now won five straight in the series dating back to 2004.
- Mid-America Christian remained unbeaten with a 4-0 record to start the season while the loss dropped Oklahoma Wesleyan to 1-3.
UP NEXT
- Mid-America Christian will now prepare to open Sooner Athletic Conference play on Wednesday, Nov. 16 as the Evangels will host Langston (Okla.) for a 6 p.m. tip-off inside the Gaulke Activity Center.
