OLATHE, Kan. – The MACU Women's Basketball team was unable to repeat history inside the Cook Center on Friday night as the Evangels saw their season come to a tough end against No. 12 seed Olivet Nazarene 82-71 in the NAIA Tournament First Round matchup.
 
SCORE

• Olivet Nazarene 82, Mid-America Christian 71
  • Mid-America Christian (25-7)
  • Olivet Nazarene (26-6)

TOP PERFORMERS

• Mia Smith – 25 Points, 8-18 FG, 4-6 3FG, 4 Assists, 2 Reb
• Caitlynn Jordan – 15 Points, 6-12 FG, 3-3 FT, 5 Reb, 2 Assists, 2 Steals
• Aniya Smith – 11 Points, 4-5 FG, 2-4 FT, 3 Reb, 3 Assists
• Taliah Lee – 9 Points, 4-11 FG, 8 Reb, 3 Blocks

GAME SUMMARY

• First Quarter
  • Olivet Nazarene came out of the contest running the floor and scoring quickly, scoring seven of the first nine points through the first minute to jump out to a 7-2 advantage.
  • The Evangels started getting into a rhythm as Caitlynn Jordan scooped in a layup before Mia Smith took it strong to the basket for a left-side lay-in to cut it to a 7-6 contest with 7:56 to go.
  • The Tigers put on some massive pressure over the next six minutes as ONU rattled off a 19-4 run to seize a 26-10 lead with 1:17 to go on a pair of Brooklyn Marshall foul shots.
  • The Evangels defense finally settled in over the final minute as Jordan knocked down a floater with 1:08 left to cut it to a 26-12 at the end of one quarter of play.
• Second Quarter
  • After giving up the first bucket to start the second quarter, Mid-America Christian countered with an 13-0 run over the next two minutes, getting three-pointers from Monique Carter and a pair of treys from Mia Smith before Talayah Thomas got the left-handed lay-in to fall to cut it to 28-25 with 6:39 left.
  • The Tigers caught fire from three-point range over the next two minutes, getting a trio of treys with Olivia Dirkse's deep right side three extended the ONU edge back out to 37-25 with 5:27 to go.
  • Jordan stopped the bleeding with an and-one bucket at the 5:12 mark before getting three points from the foul line from Mia Smith and Aniya Smith to trim it to a 37-30 contest with 3:52 left.
  • While ONU scored six of the next eight to push its advantage back out to double-digits at 45-35 on Caroline Sikkink's right-side trey with 1:50 remaining.
  • The Evangels once again worked it down to a two-possession game on Lee's layup and a pair of Jordan foul shots at the 52 second mark, but the Tigers closed out with a 5-0 run by doing all of the damage from the free throw line to head into the break with the 50-39 advantage.
• Third Quarter
  • Mia Smith opened the second half by burying a three from the right side before Olivet Nazarene answered with threes on back-to-back possessions to extend its advantage back out to 58-42 with 8:07 to go.
  • The Evangels slowly chiseled their way back into it as the defense settled in over the next four minutes as MACU scored eight of the next 10 points to close the gap to 60-50 on a pair of Thomas foul shots with 4:22 on the clock.
  • Both teams traded 5-0 swings over the next two minutes, but both teams struggled to find the bottom of the basket in the final two minutes of the period as Dirkse's trey with 26 seconds left made it a 69-57 ONU edge after three.
• Fourth Quarter
  • While a Mia Smith right corner three-ball and a foul shot at the 9:04 mark allowed the Evangels to close it back to single-digits, Presley Michael's three on the following possession ignited an 8-0 Tigers surge as Kalli Pappenfuss' bucket with 6:50 remaining allowed ONU to tie its largest lead of the contest at 77-61.
  • The Evangels refused to go down without swinging as MACU countered with an 8-0 streak of its own as Mia Smith scored a pair of layups in the run to make it a 77-69 contest with 4:21 left.
  • However, an exhausted MACU side was unable to put up much offense in the final four minutes as the Tigers closed out the contest by outscoring the Evangels 5-2 to wrap-up the 82-71 final.

GAME NOTES

• Despite the result, Mid-America Christian out-shot Olivet Nazarene as the Evangels went 26-for-53 (49.1 percent) from the field and 7-of-16 (43.8 percent) from three-point range while converting on 12-for-15 (80 percent) from the charity stripe.
• The Tigers finished the contest shooting 29-for-70 (41.4 percent) from the floor, but did most of their damage from behind the arc by knocking down 13-of-34 (38.4 percent) from downtown and converted on 11-of-18 (61.1 percent) on their foul shots.
• The biggest difference in the contest came on ONU's ability to get on the glass as the Tigers out-rebounded the Evangels 42-29 with an 18-3 advantage on the offensive glass, resulting in a 13-3 advantage in second chance points.
• Both teams struggled to take care of the basketball as MACU committed 23 turnovers while the Tigers finished with 22, but Olivet held the 29-21 advantage in points off takeaways.
• Mia Smith led MACU's offensive efforts, scoring a career-high 25 points on 8-of-18 shooting, going 4-for-6 from three-point range and 5-of-6 from the stripe while dishing out four assists.
• Caitlyn Jordan wrapped up the contest with 15 points, doing most of her damage in the first half while going 6-for-12 from the field and 3-of-3 from the line go with five boards, two assists, and a pair of thefts.
• Aniya Smith was the only other Evangel to finish in double-figures, scoring 11 points on 4-for-5 shooting while also tallying three rebounds and three assists.
• Taliah Lee narrowly missed getting a double-double, as the junior forward finished with nine points on 4-of-11 from the floor while yanking down eight boards to go along with three blocked shots.
• In her final game in a MACU uniform, senior guard Talayah Thomas led the distribution efforts with a career-high seven assists and also notched a team-high five steals to go along with six points and three rebounds.
• It was an unfortunate night for the Evangels and senior guard Sincere Roberts as she played her final game in a MACU uniform and the Evangels had to play shorthanded after she suffered an injury in the first quarter that knocked her out of the game.
• The matchup between MACU and Olivet Nazarene was the first ever meeting between the two programs.

SEASON RECAP

• With the result, Mid-America Christian wraps up its first season under head coach Scott Morris with a 25-7 overall record and completed its sixth consecutive trip to the NAIA Tournament. The Evangels also put together one of their best finishes ever in Sooner Athletic Conference play as they went 17-5 to finish in a tie for second, just a game out from matching Langston at the top.
• The season included the highlight of the program winning its first ever SAC Tournament championship after defeating College of the Ozarks 71-70 in the title tilt inside Abe Lemons Arena on Feb. 28.
• The Evangels finished the year with 20 or more wins for the ninth-straight season, excluding the COVID-19 impacted 2020-21 campaign where the Evangels only played 12 games.
• Junior forward Taliah Lee finished just one block shy of tying MACU's single season blocked shots record with 56 while her 1.8 blocks per game is also by far and away the second-best mark in MACU's NAIA Era (2007-present) season record book.
• Caitlynn Jordan also set a couple of marks in the single season record book, as her 29 blocked shots is tied for the fourth-most in a year while her 248 rebounds is the eight-most in one season.
• Mia Smith dished out 115 assists to match the ninth-most dimes passed out in a single season while boosting her career total to 277, becoming only the fourth Evangel in the NAIA Era to surpass 275 assists. The Hensley, Arkansas native's assist count this year was the highest in her three-year MACU tenure thus far.
• As a team, the Evangels defense allowed only 59.1 points per game, making it the second-lowest output they've allowed since the 2021-22 campaign that held opponents to a 58.7 ppg rate. MACU held its opponents to only a 35.0 percent shooting clip from the field, which ranks as the second-lowest rate its allowed in a season.
• The defense also came up with 310 steals, tying the fifth-most in a single season while the 9.7 thefts per game matched the fourth-most in one year. The Evangels also turned in one of their best team blocking seasons in program history as well, as the 109 blocked shots is the second-highest single season total with the 3.4 per game average also being the second-best in the book.
• On the offensive side, the Evangels posted their highest free throw percentage in a season in the NAIA Era, knocking down 77.5 percent of their free throw tries, topping the previous best of 75.3 percent set by the 2023-24 squad.
• Mid-America Christian made the fifth-most three-pointers in a single season with 264 conversions on the fifth-most attempts (782).