WBB BCU Postgame - 3/15/24
67
MACU Mid-A 22-9
81
Winner Briar Cliff Briar 22-9
MACU Mid-A
22-9
67
Final
81
Briar Cliff Briar
22-9
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
MACU Mid-A 16 13 20 18 67
Briar Cliff Briar 22 22 16 21 81

Game Recap: Women's Basketball | | Jim Powers

Women’s Basketball Falls to Briar Cliff in First Round of NAIA Tournament

WICHITA, Kan. – Junior guard Shy Christopher scored a game-high 25 points and senior guard Jaci Calavan recorded a 17-point, 11-rebound double-double, but the No. 10 seed MACU Women's Basketball team saw its sensational season come to an end in the first round of the NAIA Tournament inside the Garvey Center on Friday as the Evangels fell to No. 7 seed Briar Cliff, 81-67.
 
TOP PERFORMERS GAME SUMMARY
  • First Quarter
    • Briar Cliff (22-9) got off to a strong from the field by shooting 10-of-21 for 47.6 percent while MACU finished the stanza by going 6-of-17 for 35.3 percent.
    • The Chargers opened the game with a 7-2 run over the first 2:09 of the quarter but Mid-America Christian (22-9) battled back to tie the game at 10-10 as Scheer and Calavan each hit a pair of triples.
    • After Scheer tied the game once again at 16-16 on a jumper with 1:47 remaining, Briar Cliff scored the final six points of the quarter to take a 22-16 advantage to close out the period.
  • Second Quarter
    • The Chargers pushed their lead out to 26-18 only to see the Evangels cut the deficit to 26-25 as Karley Miller drilled a long-range jumper at the 6:10 mark of the stanza.
    • Briar Cliff then went on an 18-3 run of their own over the later stages of the quarter to take a 44-29 lead into the break.
    • The Chargers once again held the shooting advantage in the quarter by shooting 9-of-17 for 52.9 percent while MACU was 5-of-13 for 38.5 percent from the floor with Briar Cliff holding an 11-7 edge on the boards.
  • Third Quarter
    • The Chargers hit the first bucket of the half with a triple to extend the lead to 47-29, but the game would turn into a back-and-forth affair from that point.
    • After Briar Cliff hit a jumper to take a 53-36 advantage with 5:43 remaining in the quarter, MACU scored the next five points as Scheer and Calavan each hit jumpers while Scheer split a pair of free throws to make the score 53-41 with 3:16 left.
    • Christopher capped off the quarter with a pair of layups in the final minute to cut the Chargers' lead to 60-49 after three quarters of play.
  • Fourth Quarter
    • The Chargers opened the final quarter with a 12-5 run to push their lead out to 72-54 with 6:06 left in the contest and took their biggest lead of the game with a triple at the 3:52 mark to take a 77-58 advantage.
    • The Evangels continued to battle in the stanza as they outscored Briar Cliff 9-4 over the final three minutes of the game as Kayla Highfill scored four points while Calavan added five points during the run.
    • The Evangels held the shooting edge in the fourth quarter as they were 8-of-14 for 57.1 percent from the field while the Chargers shot 6-of-13 for 46.2 percent with Briar Cliff using the charity strip to their advantage by hitting 6-of-8 freebies.
GAME NOTES
  • Overall, Mid-America Christian 27-of-63 (42.9 percent) from the field, but struggled from downtown by going 4-of-12 (33.3 percent) and converted on just 9-for-16 (56.3 percent) from the free throw line.
  • Briar Cliff finished the game by going 32-of-66 (48.5 percent) from the field and was 9-of-21 (42.9 percent) from long range in the win. The Chargers also went 8-of-12 (66.7 percent) from the foul line.
  • Briar Cliff held a slight advantage on the boards with a 38-36 edge while causing 13 MACU turnovers in the contest. The Evangels' defense created eight steals in the game while forcing 11 Charger turnovers.
  • Both teams finished with 14 bench points while Briar Cliff held a 36-30 advantage in points in the paint.
  • Shy Christopher led all scorers in the game with 25 points on 10-for-18 shooting to go with three boards and two assists. The Jacksonville, Arkansas native completed one of the best offensive seasons since the program joined the NAIA in 2008, notching single-season top five marks in points (604, 4th), points per game (19.5, 4th), field goals (226, 4th), field goal percentage (49.6, 5th) and made free throws (131, 4th).
  • Christopher also climbed up the program's NAIA Era career scoring chart as she surpassed Ossyana Ozoani for the second-most points as she has tallied 1112 points in her first two years with the Evangels.
  • Jaci Calavan finished out her collegiate career with an outstanding output, scoring 17 points on 7-of-15 shooting, going 2-for-3 from three while tying a career-high 11 rebounds to notch her third-career double-double at MACU.
  • In closing out her two-year stint with MACU, Calavan set several NAIA Era season and career marks. During the 2023-24 campaign, the Stillwater, Oklahoma product notched top 10 season marks in points (526, 8th), points per game (17.0, 10th), made field goals (170, 10th), made three-pointers (75, 7th) and converted the best free throw percentage in the time frame (91.7 percent).
  • Calavan's career marks were even more plentiful as she ended her MACU tenure with top 10 marks in points (963, 8th), scoring average (16.6, 3rd), rebounding average (4.7, 10th), made field goals (292, 10th), made three-pointers (140, 5th), three-point percentage (38.7, 3rd), made free throws (225, 5th) and also finished with the career free throw percentage record (88.2).
  • Kylee Scheer rounded out MACU's double-digit scorers with 10 points on 4-of-7 from the field to go with five rebounds.
  • By finishing the year with a 22-9 record, the Evangels notched their seventh-straight 20-plus win season excluding the COVID-19 impacted 2020-21 campaign.
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