OKLAHOMA CITY – Facing the top team in the Sooner Athletic Conference, the MACU women's basketball team put together a dominant second half performance by outscoring No. 17 Texas Wesleyan 49-29 in the second half to run away with a 90-66 victory inside the Gaulke Activity Center in the SAC Game of the Week on Saturday afternoon.
TOP PERFORMERS
- Shy Christopher – 25 Points, 11-19 FG, 3-4 FT, 7 Reb, 6 Assists
- Alexis Borgstadt – 16 Points, 5-7 FG, 5-5 FT, 3 Reb, 2 Assists
- Jaci Littell – 13 Points, 5-8 FG, 2-2 FT, 4 Reb, 3 Assists, 2 Steals
- Whitney Outon – 11 Points, 5-8 FG, 7 Reb
GAME SUMMARY
- First Quarter
- Texas Wesleyan (20-3, 15-2 SAC) opened the contest by scoring the first four points on a pair of buckets by Kertisa Amos and Savanna Smith, but the Evangels swung back with five unanswered as Shy Christopher's coast-to-coast layup off a defensive board made it a 5-4 game with 6:14 to go.
- Zyonna Barbee gave the Lady Rams their last lead of the game with a three-pointer on the ensuing possession, but Aneli Thomsen's turn-around midrange jumper with just over four minutes left followed by a pair of Alexis Borgstadt free throws pushed Mid-America Christian (20-4, 14-4 SAC) back in-front 9-7 with 3:36 left.
- The Lady Rams closed it to a one-point game at 14-13 on a Makayla Coy layup with 1:47 remaining, but the Evangels closed out the quarter with an eight-unanswered run as a Shy Christopher and-one preceded Whitney Outon's buzzer-beating three from the left wing to send MACU into the second with a 22-13 advantage.
- Second Quarter
- Mid-America Christian stretched its lead out to 14 right out of the gate as a Christopher rebound and fastbreak lay-in followed by Thomsen's triple from the right corner off a Christopher dish made it 27-13 at the 9:14 mark.
- TWU held MACU scoreless over a three-minutes stretch while cutting the Evangels lead in half as a Smith layup closed it to 27-20 with 7:53 remaining.
- MACU briefly stretched its edge back out to double-digits on a Christopher fastbreak bucket and a Jaci Littell jumper from the left side with five-and-a-half left, but Texas Wesleyan chipped its way back over the next five minutes, closing it to a two-point score at 37-35 with 1:04 left on a baseline jumper by Amos.
- A Sydney Wycoff layup followed by a Tyaija Coleman steal and Littell fastbreak layup pushed the Evangels lead to six, but the Lady Rams closed it to 41-37 at the half on Na'teiona Cole's layup with four seconds to go.
- Third Quarter
- The Evangels came out in the second half with all of the momentum as MACU scored the first seven, capped off on a Christopher three-point play with 8:18 left to set the score to 48-37.
- Texas Wesleyan cut it to a six-point game on Keara Felix's layup, but the Evangels countered with seven-straight as Shy Christopher knocked down a tough, tightly contested midrange jumper from the left side to push it back to 55-42 with 5:46 remaining.
- The Lady Rams were unable to knock it below a single-digit lead the rest of the way as the Evangels closed out the period by scoring seven of the last nine as Coleman's fastbreak layup off Littell's steal with 20 seconds left made it 66-51 at the end of three.
- Fourth Quarter
- Mid-America Christian immediate extended its edge out to 20 at 71-51 to start the final quarter as Borgstadt powered it in before finishing the three-point play with 8:45 to go.
- The closest the Lady Rams came the rest of the way was on a Cole foul shot with 3:20 left to make it an 81-64 game.
- The Evangels closed out the contest with a 9-2 run as Sydney Savage's lay-in with seven seconds left allowed MACU to wrap-up the game with its largest lead at 90-66.
GAME NOTES
- Mid-America Christian put up its third-best shooting performance of the season, knocking down 36-for-68 (52.9 percent) from the field despite shooting just 4-of-13 (30.8 percent) from the three-point arc. Meanwhile the Evangels held Texas Wesleyan to its second-lowest scoring output of the season, shooting just 26-for-67 (38.8 percent) and 3-of-14 (21.1 percent) from beyond the arc.
- Facing one of the most prolific free throw shooting teams in the NAIA, the Evangels outscored the Lady Rams from the foul line by knocking down 14-of-18 (77.8 percent) from the line while TWU converted 11-of-13 (84.6 percent).
- MACU put together a strong floor game, tallying 18 assists to 15 turnovers while the Lady Rams recorded just nine assists while committing 20 giveaways.
- The Evangels controlled the glass, outrebounding the top rebounding team in the SAC at 43-34.
- MACU controlled the paint by outscoring TWU 52-28 while also outscoring the Lady Rams in-transition 18-4.
- Shy Christopher led four Evangels in double-figures with 25 points on 11-of-19 shooting, including 3-for-4 from the foul line to go with a team-high seven rebounds and a game-high six assists.
- Alexis Borgstadt provided a strong spark off the MACU bench, scoring 16 points on 5-for-7 from the field and 5-of-5 from the line while pulling down three boards to go with a pair of assists.
- Jaci Littell pitched in 13 points on 5-of-8 from the floor with four rebounds, three assists and two steals while Whitney Outon rounded it out with 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting, also tying a team-high seven boards.
- With the win, Mid-America Christian avenged an 82-74 loss at Texas Wesleyan on Jan. 2 to split the season series. The victory also moved the Evangels to within 1.5 games of the Lady Rams for first in the SAC with four games left in league play.
- The Evangels kept its sensational streak of winning by 16-points or more going as the Evangels have now won seven straight by that margin.
UP NEXT
- Mid-America Christian will be back on the road on Thursday, Feb. 9 as the Evangels will head to Dallas for a 6 p.m. tip-off against UNT-Dallas inside the Trinity Basin Preparatory Athletic Complex.
