OKLAHOMA CITY – No. 18 MACU Women's Basketball staved off Science & Arts in the final minutes in its first contest of 2025 on Thursday night inside the Gaulke Activity Center as the Evangels pulled away late for the 77-64 win.
 
TOP PERFORMERS

• Mary Nyakundi – 20 Points, 5-10 FG, 2-3 3FG, 8-11 FT, 4 Reb, 3 Assists
• Shy Christopher – 15 Points, 4-11 FG, 7-8 FT, 8 Reb, 2 Assists
• Talayah Thomas – 13 Points, 4-8 FG, 3-5 3FG, 2-2 FT, 4 Reb, 2 Steals

GAME SUMMARY

• First Quarter
  • The Mid-America Christian (12-1, 8-1 SAC) defense was stifling through the first five minutes as the Evangels jumped out to a 7-2 lead with four points coming from Talayah Thomas on a jumper and a pair of free throws with 5:59 left.
  • Science & Arts (7-6, 5-4 SAC) briefly cut it to a two-point game on an Anna Kassim 20-foot jumper from the left wing with 4:16 to go, but MACU answered back with a 7-2 run with five coming from Shy Christopher, the last on a lay-in with 2:27 remaining to make it 15-8.
  • The Drovers cut into the Evangels' advantage by scoring seven of the last 11 to trim it to a 19-15 game at the end of one.
• Second Quarter
  • MACU opened the second stanza strong by stringing together an 8-1 run that was started with a Thomas three and ended on a Kylee Scheer long range bomb from the right wing with 6:04 remaining to extend the edge to 27-16.
  • The Drovers were unable to knock the MACU lead down to less than nine over the next seven minutes as Syncere Harrod's short jumper at the 2:29 mark pushed it back to 33-22.
  • The Evangels were unable to score the rest of the way as USAO scored the final three points from the foul line to make it a 33-25 contest at the break.
• Third Quarter
  • Mid-America Christian came hot out of the gate by scoring eight of the first 10 points as a Christopher floating jumper and a pair of threes from Mary Nyakundi and Talayah Thomas from the right corner with 7:58 left extended the MACU advantage to 41-27.
  • Over the next six-and-a-half minutes, Science & Arts stifled the Evangels, holding MACU to just four points in the stretch as the Drovers went on a 12-4 run to close the gap to 47-42 on Kassim's three with 1:55 to go.
  • MACU managed to get on the board before the end of the quarter as Nyakundi got to the line and drilled a pair of throws with just over 30 seconds remaining to make it a 49-42 game at the end of three.
• Fourth Quarter
  • The Evangels briefly extended the lead to 55-46 on Nyakundi's left corner three off the Christopher drive and dish at the 8:19 mark.
  • An Evangelina Davlakou step-back three on the ensuing possession ignited an 11-5 USAO run to trim it to a one possession game on her own foul shot with 4:21 left to set the score to 60-57.
  • While MACU managed to score five of the next seven to stretch the lead back to six, the Drovers threatened late as a Kassim three and a Franka Kraus floating jumper in the paint made it a one-point game at 65-64 with 1:41 to go.
  • On the following possession, Kylee Scheer hit a clutch midrange jumper and after coming up with a huge defensive stop, Mia Smith hit a buzzer-beating three from the right wing off a Harbour kick-out to set the score to 70-64 with 52 seconds left.
  • Mid-America Christian put the game away from the free throw line after coming up with another defensive stop as MACU went 7-for-8 from the line the rest of the way to secure the 77-64 victory.

GAME NOTES

• Both teams were relatively even from the field as Mid-America Christian shot 21-for-53 (39.6 percent) to the Drovers' 24-of-60 (40.0 percent) while MACU held a slight advantage from beyond the arc by going 8-for-24 (33.3 percent) to USAO's 7-of-26 (26.9 percent).
• The biggest factor in the contest was MACU's ability to get to the line and take advantage of its opportunities, shooting 27-of-34 (79.4 percent) while Science & Arts went only 9-for-13 (69.2 percent).
• Even though USAO managed to force MACU into committing two more turnovers at 14-to-12, the Evangels won the glass by out-rebounding the Drovers 39-33.
• For the second time in three games, Mary Nyakundi led the MACU offensive efforts, finishing with 20 points on 5-of-10 shooting, going 2-for-3 from the three-point arc while doing most of her damage from the foul line with an 8-of-11 clip. The grad student guard was also highly effective from the floor, ripping down four boards and dishing out three assists to only one turnover.
• Shy Christopher also did most of her damage from the line as she tallied 15 points on 4-for-11 from the field and 7-of-8 from the stripe to go with a team-high eight rebounds and a pair of dimes.
• Talayah Thomas rounded out MACU's double-digit scorers with 13 points on 4-for-8 shooting, going 3-of-5 from beyond the arc to go with four boards and a pair of steals.
• By getting the win, MACU extended its win streak to five games over the Drovers.
• The victory also allowed the Evangels to move into a tie for second with Langston in the Sooner Athletic Conference standings while keeping in lock step with league leader No. 12 Wayland Baptist at just a half-game back.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will hit the road for its first contest away from the Gaulke Activity Center in the new year on Saturday as the Evangels take on Texas Wesleyan for a 2 p.m. tip-off inside the Sid Richardson Center in Fort Worth, Texas.