SIOUX CITY, Iowa – The No. 24 MACU Women's Basketball team saw its phenomenal 2024-25 season came to a close on Friday night as the Evangels deepest ever NAIA Tournament run was ended in the Round of 16 as the Evangels fell to No. 5 Briar Cliff (Iowa) 80-64 inside the Tyson Events Center.
 
TOP PERFORMERS

• Shy Christopher – 21 Points, 8-17 FG, 7 Reb, 3 Assists
• Hailey Tunnell – 13 Points, 5-9 FG, 3-6 3FG
• Alexis Borgstadt – 12 Points, 5-9 FG, 2 Reb

GAME SUMMARY

• First Quarter
  • After Shy Christopher got off to a fast start for Mid-America Christian (record), scoring four of the first seven points on a pair of strong takes down the left side, Briar Cliff (record) responded with an 8-0 run to stretch the lead to 11-4 on a steal and fastbreak layup by Kennedy Benne with 7:38 left.
  • Syncere Harrod snapped the streak with a great low post move and finish with the left hand with 6:40 to go, but the Chargers once again responded with an 11-2 surge as Adrianna Webster's take down the right lane swelled the BCU lead to 22-8 at the 3:13 mark.
  • MACU came up with scores on back-to-back possessions as Alexis Borgstadt and Harrod made layups to cut it back to a 10-point game with two minutes to go, but the Evangels went quiet over the final two minutes as Taylor Sodeman's bucket with 21 seconds left was the lone score to make it a 24-12 game after one.
• Second Quarter
  • Both teams went blow-for-blow through the first four minutes before the Evangels finally got their first three-ball from the right side by Borgstadt with 5:36 to go, setting the score to 30-19.
  • Over the last four minutes, MACU struggled to find a bucket as Briar Cliff strung together a 9-2 surge to grab its largest lead of the half on a Mallie McNair foul shot with 32 seconds left to set the score to 41-23.
  • Holding for the final shot, all of the attention went toward Christopher trying to drive down the left side as her jump pass to a wide-open Sydney Savage in the right block allowed the Evangels to get the final score with three seconds left to send the game into the break at 41-25.
• Third Quarter
  • While Christopher opened the second half with a tough contested layup in the paint to start out the second half, Briar Cliff immediately responded with seven-unanswered as a Webster bucket with 7:44 remaining extended the Chargers edge to 48-27 with 7:44 left, forcing MACU head coach Hannah Moeller to call a timeout.
  • After the Chargers captured their largest lead of the quarter on back-to-back McNair scores to make it a 55-31 game with 6:08 to go, the Evangels defense clamped down defensively by holding BCU to only four points over the next five minutes. However, MACU could only manage to cut it to a 59-40 game on a Borgstadt bucket with 24 seconds remaining.
  • McNair's score just before the end of the period managed to extend the BCU advantage to 61-40 with four seconds left.
• Fourth Quarter
  • Another long ball from McNair opened the scoring in the final period two minutes in before BCU continued to stay hot with another three-ball by Kenna Mongan while her two free throws at the 6:19 mark gave the Chargers their largest lead of the game at 69-42.
  • Hailey Tunnell was able to bury a pair of threes within 30 seconds as part of an 8-1 run as Harrod's foul shots with 3:51 left to bring it to a 72-52 contest.
  • The Evangels put together a small surge late in the contest by scoring eight unanswered featuring threes from Tunnel and Kylee Scheer before a pair of Natalie Tietjan free throws with 14 seconds left closed out the scoring at 80-64.

GAME NOTES

• Mid-America Christian struggled from the field as the Evangels shot 23-for-64 (35.9 percent) from the field, including 5-of-22 (22.7 percent) from three while Briar Cliff finished 29-of-67 (43.3 percent) and was red-hot from three, going 12-for-22 (54.5 percent).
• Both teams were relatively even from the foul line as MACU shot 13-of-16 (81.3 percent) while the Chargers tallied 10-for-14 (71.4 percent).
• Briar Cliff held a slight 40-39 edge on the glass, including 11-10 on the offensive end while outscoring the Evangels 14-7 in second chance points. BCU also held the edge in the turnover battle, forcing 13 MACU giveaways while committing nine of its own possess a 16-4 advantage in points off turnovers.
• Despite its offensive struggles, Shy Christopher once again closed out her phenomenal NAIA Tournament with another strong offensive outing, scoring a team-high 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting, including 5-for-7 from the stripe to go with seven rebounds and three assists.
• Hailey Tunnell and Alexis Borgstadt provided a spark off the MACU bench as Tunnell finished with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting, including 3-for-5 from three-point range while Borgstadt tallied 12 points on 5-for-9 from the field.
• Kylee Scheer led MACU on the glass with eight rebounds and dished out three dimes to go with a pair of blocked shots.
• MACU as a team tied a program NAIA Era (2007-present) record eight blocked shots in the contest as Syncere Harrod led the squad with three rejections.
• It was a year to remember for the MACU Women's Basketball program overall as not only did the Evangels make their deepest run ever in the NAIA Tournament, but the Evangels also had the opportunity to compete in their first ever SAC Tournament Championship game on Mar. 4.
• The Evangels wrap-up the 2024-25 campaign with a 27-7 overall record and set several NAIA Era top five marks as a program throughout the season, including:
  • Blocked shots (89, 2nd)
  • Made free throws (533, 2nd)
  • Scoring defense (62.2 ppg, 2nd)
  • Rebounds (1466, 3rd)
  • Rebounding margin (10.0, 3rd)
  • Made field goals (931, 3rd)
  • Free throw percentage (73.5, 3rd)
  • Points (2604, 4th)
  • Scoring margin (14.4, 4th)
  • Field goal percentage (42.9, 4th)
  • Field goal defense (38.3, 5th)
• The Evangels also had multiple individual set NAIA Era season top 10 marks:
  • Shy Christopher
    • Points (587, 6^th)
    • Points per game (17.3, 8^th)
    • Made field goals (218, 6^th)
    • Made free throws (129, 5^th)
  • Kylee Scheer
    • Steals (64, 7^th)
    • Steals per game (1.9, 9^th)
    • Made three-pointers (65, 9^th)
    • Free throw percentage (78.3, 7^th)
  • Syncere Harrod
    • Blocks (22, 6^th)
    • Field goal percentage (48.6, 7^th)
  • Harley Harbour
    • Rebounds per game (8.2, 6^th)
  • Mary Nyakundi
    • Free throw percentage (77.3, 10^th)
• With many legendary seniors playing their final games with MACU, the following student-athletes inked their names in the program's NAIA Era career record book:
  • Shy Christopher
    • Points (1699, 2^nd)
    • Points per game (18.3, 3^rd)
    • Rebounds (488, 6^th)
    • Rebounds per game (5.2, 10^th)
    • Assists (221, 6^th)
    • Made field goals (634, 2^nd)
    • Field goal percentage (48.2, 4^th)
    • Made free throws (377, 1^st)
    • Free throw percentage (73.5, 10^th)
    • Games played (93, 10^th)
  • Kylee Scheer
    • Points per game (13.0, 7^th)
    • Rebounds (421, 9^th)
    • Rebounds per game (6.6, 5^th)
    • Assists per game (2.6, 9^th)
    • Steals (113, 9^th)
    • Steals per game (1.8, 4^th)
    • Made field goals (300, 9^th)
    • Field goal percentage (44.4, 8^th)
    • Made three-pointers (119, 7^th)
    • Three-point percentage (35.2, 8^th)
  • Alexis Borgstadt
    • Free throw percentage (74.6, 9^th)
  • Sydney Savage
    • Games played (104, 6^th)
• Seven MACU seniors wrapped up phenomenal playing careers with the Evangels: Shy Christopher, Kylee Scheer, Sydney Savage, Alexis Borgstadt, Syncere Harrod, Mary Nyakundi and Liberty Hill.