OKLAHOMA CITY – No. 18 MACU Women's basketball team completed the regular season series sweep over the visiting Oklahoma City Stars inside the Gaulke Activity Center. An explosive MACU first quarter was too much for OCU to handle in the 70-54 Evangels win.
TOP PERFORMERS
GAME SUMMARY
- First Quarter
- Both teams traded buckets for the first five minutes with Mid-America Christian (18-3, 14-3 SAC) having a slight 11-9 edge over Oklahoma City, (8-13, 8-9 SAC) with Kylee Scheer sparking the offense on a triple from the top of the arc on Syncere Harrod's feed providing MACU with a 14-9 lead with five minutes remaining.
- The Evangels closed out the quarter by scoring the next 10 points off a Harrod lay-in, a Hailey Tunnell three from the right elbow and back-to-back buckets by Kylee Scheer.
- MACU limited OCU to just 4-of-13 from the floor and scoreless over the final 5:33 allowing them to take a 23-9 lead into the second.
- Second Quarter
- Scheer connected for the opening bucket on a three-ball for her fourteenth point of the contest just 11 minutes in, Shy Christopher then executed a three-point play on a floater plus the foul to provide an 18-0 run for the Evangels dating back to last quarter.
- After a nine-minute scoring drought, the Stars at last got back in the scoring column on a layup by Lauren Rowan with 6:33 to go.
- It would be dead even with both teams scoring eight points the rest of the way, with the half being closed out on a triple by Hailey Tunnell on Talayah Thomas's dime to give MACU a 37-19 advantage entering the halftime break.
- Third Quarter
- After the Stars connected for the first two buckets of the half, MACU went on a 10-2 run led by Scheer as she had the first five points followed by a triple by Talayah Thomas and a jumper by Mary Nyakundi to extend the lead to 48-25 with 6:38 left.
- OCU outscored MACU 13-5 over the final 6:38 that included an 8-2 run with the final bucket of the quarter coming from the Stars Ray Osborn with 1:36 left cutting the Evangels lead to 53-38 entering the last frame.
- Fourth Quarter
- The Stars transitioned the momentum on the offense end to the fourth with a 6-3 edge over the first three minutes. Harrod scored six unanswered to boost MACU's lead to 62-44, however the Stars struck for a 10-2 surge over a prolonged 4 minutes and 10 seconds to make it a ten-point deficit down 64-54 with 1:18 to play.
- With :58 seconds remaining, Nyakundi executed the dagger on a lay-up to draw the lead to 66-54. The Evangels added on four more behind two free throws by Scheer and a layup by Sydney Savage sealed a 70-54 win.
GAME NOTES
- Mid-America Christian outshot Oklahoma City 26-of-51 (51.0 percent) while holding the Stars to 23-of-62 (37.1 percent). Both teams finished with 32 points inside the paint, but the Evangels had the advantage in threes made 6-3 and a plus-seven in free throws made.
- MACU came out the gates strong, winning the first quarter 23-9 and holding the Stars scoreless for a nine-minute stretch in the process.
- Kylee Scheer was just one-point off back-to-back 30-point performances, she finished with 29 points and led the contest in rebounds with seven.
- Syncere Harrod played a big role in the win; she dropped 16 points behind 5-of-6 from the floor as well as 6-of-7 from the charity stripe with five boards.
- Shy Christopher had a season-high of seven assists which also tied the most she has put up as an Evangel.
- Hailey Tunnell had another solid game coming off the bench, she went 2-6 from three-point land with five boards.
- OCU did slightly outscore the Evangels 35-32 in the second half, however that first quarter was too much for the Stars to overcome, allowing MACU to run away with a double-digit victory.
- With the victory MACU has now won three consecutive games over OCU dating back to last season.
UP NEXT
Mid-America Christian will return to the Gaulke Activity Center for its home matchup against John Brown in a pivotal SAC matchup on Thursday Jan. 30, with a tip-off set for 6 p.m.
