OKLAHOMA CITY – The Sooner Athletic Conference announced its 2023-24 All-Conference recipients on Friday afternoon as the MACU Women's Basketball team had four standouts garner honors.
In her battle to claim victory against cancer, sophomore guard Camryn Armes received the SAC's Sportsmanship Award and for the second year in a row, junior Shy Christopher was selected as an All-SAC First Team recipient as well as named to the All-SAC Defensive Team and senior guard Jaci Calavan garnered Second Team accolades. In her first year with the program, junior guard Kylee Scheer received an Honorable Mention nod.
Heading into her second year at Mid-America Christian, Armes received terrible news that she had been diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that affects bones, soft tissue and cartilage. Despite her devastating diagnosis, Armes kept a positive attitude and made a strong commitment to overcome it.
In a special night inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Nov. 10 where the Evangels hosted CLAim Victory Night in-order raise money for Armes' cancer treatments, the Gruver, Texas native got the opportunity to step onto the court in the final minute and ended up scoring five points in MACU's 101-41 victory over Bellevue.
A back-to-back All-SAC First Team honoree, Christopher has been the engine of the top scoring team in the league as she won the conference's scoring title with 396 points in 22 games (18.0 ppg) on a stellar 47.7 percent shooting clip.
After last night's 72-66 victory over Science & Arts in the SAC Quarterfinal, Christopher's legend continues to grow as she has now scored 562 points (19.4 ppg), climbing into the program's NAIA Era (2007-present) top five for most points in a season as well as moved into fifth in most field goals made in a season at 210. In that win, Christopher tied her career-high with 35 points on 12-of-22 shooting, made a career-most three made three-pointers and went 8-for-10 from the foul line.
With 121 made free throws, the Jacksonville, Arkansas native also sits just outside the top five, needing just two more tosses to break into that list and seven more makes to match Alexis Shannon (2018-19) for the fourth-most made free throws.
Not only is Christopher considered a great offensive player, but is also considered one of the best two-way players in the conference as she was also tabbed to the league's All-Defensive Team due to her sensational on-ball defensive presence while recording 38 steals to go with averaging 5.8 rebounds per game.
Garnering All-SAC Second Team honors for the second year in a row, Calavan scored the fourth-most points during conference competition, pouring in 361 points (16.4 ppg) and is one of the league's most lethal outside shooters, knocking down the third-most threes (51) on the fifth-best percentage (37.8). Not only is the Stillwater, Oklahoma great from the outside, but she is also the SAC's most outstanding free throw shooter, converting a league-high 90.7 percent (88-of-97) of her tosses.
In MACU's 29-game slate, Calavan has scored 493 total points (17.0 ppg) on 40.6 percent shooting, going 71-for-183 (38.8 percent) from downtown and owns the fourth-best free throw percentage in the NAIA at 92.3 percent (108-of-117). Her 14 points scored against USAO last night allowed the senior wing to break into MACU's NAIA Era top 10 scoring list, her 71 triples are the seventh-most in a season and her current free throw percentage is currently more than five points higher than MACU's NAIA Era season record.
Just like Christopher, Calavan has reached the 30-point plateau three times this season, pouring in a season-high 33 points in a 102-97 victory over Williams Baptist (Ark.) on Nov. 18, just one point shy of her career-best.
One of MACU's newcomers this season, Kylee Scheer has been a dynamic player that has made a massive impact all over the court for the Evangels during the 2023-24 campaign. During SAC competition, the Cheney, Kansas native finished third on the team in scoring with 175 points (8.0 ppg) and was MACU's leader in rebounding (118, 5.4 rpg). Scheer also finished second on the team in steals (22) and dished out the third-most assists (47, 2.1 apg).
However, even outside of league play, Scheer was one of MACU's top overall players as she is the team's leader in rebounds (177, 6.1 rpg) and steals (48) while tallying the third-most points (319, 11.0 ppg) and assists (71, 2.4 apg).
Mid-America Christian will continue its SAC Tournament postseason run on Monday as the fourth-seeded Evangels will take on top-seeded No. 13 John Brown (Ark.) in the SAC Semifinal at 6 p.m. inside the Sid Richardson Center on the campus of Texas Wesleyan University.
