LANGSTON, Okla. – The No. 24 MACU Women's Basketball team was unable to overcome some tough hurdles inside C.F. Gayles Fieldhouse, the home confines of the host and top-seeded No. 17 Langston in the Sooner Athletic Conference Championship game on Tuesday night as the Evangels fell by a final score of 64-54 in the title tilt.
 
TOP PERFORMERS

• Kylee Scheer – 17 Points, 5-13 FG, 3-7 3FG, 4-5 FT, 3 Reb
• Talayah Thomas – 9 Points, 3-9 FG, 3-3 FT, 6 Reb

GAME SUMMARY

• First Quarter
  • After trading the first two buckets on layups by Korea Kirksey and Kylee Scheer, Langston (29-2) clamped down on Mid-America Christian (25-6) as the Lions went on an 8-0 run capped off on a pair of Ruth Sodipe foul shots with 6:16 left.
  • A Shy Christopher drive and score with 5:33 to go allowed the Evangels to score six-straight, closing it to a two-point game on Mary Nyakundi's lay-in at the 4:31 mark.
  • However, the Evangels struggled to find a bucket the rest of the way as an 8-4 LU surge allowed the Lions to hold an 18-12 advantage after one.
• Second Quarter
  • Langston continued to build to their lead to start the second period, scoring six of the first eight with Jordan Brown's trey with just over six minutes left extending the advantage to double-figures at 24-14.
  • The MACU defense held the Lions to just two points over the next two-and-a-half minutes as a 7-2 Evangels streak closed the gap to 26-21 on Kylee Scheer's triple with 3:51 remaining.
  • Unfortunately, MACU was unable to keep the Lions contained for the rest of the half as LU finished with a 13-2 surge with Kirksey knocking down a three with 10 seconds left to send Langston into the break with the 39-23 edge.
• Third Quarter
  • The Evangels tried to make up some of the gap by scoring the first four points out of the half on lay-ins from Talayah Thomas and Syncere Harrod, but Langston once again put MACU behind the 8-ball by answering with a 9-2 run capped off on a Diamond Richardson and-one bucket with 4:19 left, making it 48-29.
  • MACU continued to struggle to find a bucket against Langston's feisty defense as Scheer's midrange jumper was the Evangels' last field goal of the quarter. MACU was able to do some damage from the foul line, but the Lions were still able to maintain a 54-36 edge at the end of three.
• Fourth Quarter
  • While LU was able to score four of the first seven to open the final period, Mid-America Christian began to claw back by tallying seven in a row, five of which coming from Thomas to knock the deficit down to 58-46 with 4:44 left.
  • Langston notched the next five from the free throw line to stretch the advantage back up to 63-46 with just over two minutes to go.
  • MACU was able to knock it down to single digits momentarily with eight-straight started on an Aniya Smith right corner three and a Sydney Savage layup before Scheer ended it with a long-range right-wing bomb, but 28 seconds left, but Mikayla Woods knocked down one of two from the foul line to wrap-up the 64-54 final.

GAME NOTES

• Mid-America Christian struggled to get into an offensive rhythm all night, as the Evangels shot 18-for-54 (33.3 percent), including 4-of-18 (22.2 percent) from three-point range and converted on 14-for-21 (66.7 percent) from the free throw line.
• While the Evangels were also able to hold Langston to only 19-of-54 (35.2 percent) shooting and 6-of-30 (20 percent) from three-point range, the Lions ability to get to the foul line proved to be a strong advantage as LU knocked down 20-for-30 (66.7 percent).
• Langston was able to hold a slight 40-37 edge on the glass with an 11-8 edge in offensive boards, resulting in a 13-8 margin in second chance scoring.
• Mid-America Christian was able to win the turnover battle by forcing 16 LU giveaway while committing only 14, resulting in a slight 16-14 edge to MACU in points off turnovers.
• The Evangels had to overcome a tough hurdle as their top scorer Shy Christopher went down due to injury late in the second quarter and missed almost the entire second half as a result.
• Kylee Scheer was the only Evangel to finish in double-figure scoring, pouring in 17 points on 5-of-13 shooting, going 3-for-7 from range and 4-of-5 from the free throw line.
• Talayah Thomas narrowly missed breaking into double-digits after scoring nine points on 3-of-9 shooting and went 3-for-3 from the stripe.
• Hailey Tunnell led MACU's floor game with a team-high eight rebounds and dished out a team-high four assists.
• With the defeat, Langston won all three meetings against MACU on the year.
• The Evangels made their deepest run ever in the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament by advancing all the way to the championship.
• At the conclusion of the contest, Christopher and Scheer were selected to the SAC All-Tournament Team.
• Due to Langston winning the SAC regular season and tournament titles, MACU will receive one of the SAC's two automatic bid to the NAIA Tournament by finishing as the league's tournament finalist.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will await to see where it will head in the NAIA Tournament as the selection show is slated for Mar. 6 at 6 p.m. on the NAIA Network.