SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. – The No. 24 MACU women's basketball team rallied from eight points down in the second half to pick up its 10
th straight win on Thursday night inside Bill George Arena as the Evangels won their final regular season road contest by a score of 72-59.
TOP PERFORMERS
- Aneli Thomsen – 20 Points, 7-12 FG, 4-9 3FG, 2-2 FT, 3 Steals
- Whitney Outon – 13 Points, 3-10 FG, 7-10 FT, 5 Reb, 2 Steals
- Kyleigh Leverich – 13 Points, 4-5 FG, 3-4 3FG, 2-4 FT, 4 Reb
GAME SUMMARY
- First Quarter
- John Brown (19-8, 13-8 SAC) opened the contest with a three from the left wing by Lisa Vanoverberge at the 9:05 mark, but the Evangels held JBU scoreless over the next four minutes as Whitney Outon's layup with 5:41 to go gave MACU the 4-3 edge.
- Graci Harris cut down the left wing for the open layup with 4:36 left put the Golden Eagles back in-front, but Mid-America Christian (23-4, 17-4 SAC) recaptured the 7-5 advantage on Sydney Wycoff's triple from the left wing with three minutes left.
- The two teams traded leads three more times before Jaci Littell buried a midrange jumper from the left side off an in-bound pass with 24 seconds to go, putting MACU up 11-10 at the end of one.
- Second Quarter
- The Evangels were able to maintain their lead over the first few minutes before Natalie Smith buried a right-wing three with 7:21 remaining to make it a 16-15 JBU edge.
- A Shy Christopher three-point play and a Whitney Outon free throw put MACU back up by three at 6:07 left, but the Golden Eagles held MACU scoreless over the next four minutes as Smith's second three put JBU ahead at 21-19 with 3:30 to go.
- Christopher scored MACU's next four points, but another Smith triple at the 1:17 mark allowed the Golden Eagles the 24-23 lead heading into the break.
- Third Quarter
- John Brown scored the first seven points to open the second half while holding the Evangels scoreless over the first three minutes as Vanoverberge's three made it a 31-23 game with 7:37 left.
- Aneli Thomsen rattled off five unanswered on a transition pullup and a three from the right corner to close it to three, but an Emily Sanders three with 5:39 to go pushed it back out to a 34-28 advantage.
- Sydney Wycoff buried a three from the left wing to jumpstart a 9-2 Evangels run as Kyleigh Leverich and Tomsen also knocked down triples to retake a 37-36 edge with 4:07 to go.
- The two teams battled back-and-forth over the remainder of the quarter as the lead exchanged five times, but four-unanswered run by the Golden Eagles capped by a Maddie Altman left-handed layup with eight seconds to go put JBU in-front 44-42 heading into the fourth.
- Fourth Quarter
- To start the final period, MACU and JBU traded the first four buckets before Thomsen buried a three from the top of the key at the 8:19 mark ignited a 14-2 Evangels streak, capped off by a pair of Littell foul shots with 5:05 remaining to give MACU its first double-digit lead at 60-50.
- Altman's bucket with 4:35 to go only briefly stopped Mid-America Christian as the Evangels swung back by scoring nine of the next 12 as two Leverich free throws gave MACU its largest lead of the contest at 69-55 with 40 seconds left.
- John Brown was unable to close it single-digits the rest of the way as two Outon free throws with 13 seconds to sealed the 72-59 road win.
GAME NOTES
- After shooting just 9-for-27 (33.3 percent) from the field in the first half, including just 1-of-12 (8.3 percent) from three, Mid-America Christian caught fire in the second half, knocking down 15-of-27 (55.5 percent) of its shots while going 8-for-16 (50 percent) from three. Overall, MACU finished the contest with a 44.4 percent shooting clip, a 32.1 percent mark from three and converted 15-for-21 (71.4 percent) from the free throw line.
- Defensively, the Evangels held John Brown to just 22-of-60 (36.7 percent) from the floor and 8-for-31 (25.8 percent) from beyond the arc as well as keeping JBU to just 10 attempts from the line at 7-for-10 (70 percent).
- The two teams had a very even floor game as both squads ripped down 35 rebounds while also taking good care of the basketball as MACU turned it over just 11 times while the Golden Eagles tallied 13.
- One of the big differences in the contest was the Evangels ability to score off turnovers and in-transition as MACU outscored JBU 18-7 in points off takeaways as well as an 11-2 edge in the fastbreak.
- There were a total of 17 lead changes in the contest, seven of which came in the opening quarter.
- Graduate student forward Aneli Thomsen put together the best 20 minutes of her MACU career in the second half as she scored all of her career-high 20 points in the final two quarters, finishing the contest 7-for-12 from the floor, 4-of-9 from three and 2-for-2 from the stripe to go with a game-high three steals.
- Kyleigh Leverich provided a spark off the MACU bench, tying a season-high 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting, 3-for-4 from three and 2-of-4 from the line to go with four rebounds. Whitney Outon also turned in a 13-point performance. Despite shooting just 3-for-10 from the field, Outon tallied 7-of-10 from the charity stripe and pulled down a team-high five rebounds and a pair of steals.
- Shy Christopher rounded out the Evangels' double-digit scorers with 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting to go with three boards and three assists.
- Jaci Littell had a quiet night offensively, scoring just eight points on 3-of-7 from the field and 2-for-2 from the stripe and tied a team-high five rebounds.
- Sydney Wycoff put together a tremendous floor game, scoring seven points on 2-of-3 from three while dishing out a game-high six assists to only two turnovers while also yanking down five boards to tie the team-high.
- By getting the victory, Mid-America Christian swept the season series from John Brown after getting a 71-60 win inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Jan. 12 and MACU has now won seven of the last eight meetings.
- With the win and a No. 18 Science & Arts loss at Wayland Baptist on Thursday night, the Evangels moved into sole possession of second place in the Sooner Athletic Conference standings.
UP NEXT
- Mid-America Christian will return home for Senior Day on Saturday as the Evangels will face off against Oklahoma City at 2 p.m. inside the Gaulke Activity Center.
- The Evangels will honor their four graduating seniors at the conclusion of the contest.
