The No. 23 Mid-America Christian women's basketball team built a big lead heading into halftime and didn't look back as the Evangels cruised to a 65-48 road win at Central Christian inside Jerry Alexander Arena on Saturday afternoon.
TOP PERFORMERS
- Whitney Outon – 16 Points, 7-13 FG, 2-2 3FG, 12 Reb
- Jaci Littell – 12 Points, 4-11 FG, 2-5 3FG, 3 Assists
- Kyleigh Leverich – 7 Points, 2-5 FG, 2-2 FT, 6 Reb, 5 Assists
- First Quarter
- Both teams struggled to score in the early going before Whitney Outon got an offensive board and put-back with 7:04 left to give MACU its first and only lead of the game.
- Jaci Littell followed up the MACU scoring with a layup while drawing the foul off a Kyleigh Leverich in-bound pass on the baseline before draining the first three-pointer of the contest from the top of the key off a Tyaija Coleman kick-out to make it a 7-0 game with 6:12 left.
- Central Christian briefly cut the MACU lead to four on a pair of occasions down the stretch, the last coming on a Hallee Winsea deep three-ball from the left wing off an offensive board to make it 14-10 with 52 seconds to go.
- The Evangels closed out the quarter with a 5-1 run that was capped off on a Camryn Armes buzzer-beating three-pointer from the left corner off some great ball movement from Sydney Wycofff and Littell to swell the Evangels' edge to 19-11 after one.
- Second Quarter
- The Tigers scored the first three points of the period to close it to a two-possession game, but the Evangels countered with an 11-2 run over the next four minutes as back-to-back three-pointers from Hallie Reed and Outon pushed the MACU lead out to 30-16 with 4:48 left.
- After both teams went quiet offensively over the next two minutes, the closest Central Christian came to cutting into the MACU advantage was on a Kylee Jones floating jumper in the paint with 1:56 remaining to bring it to 30-18.
- Mid-America Christian put together another strong finish to the quarter as an Ainsley Velasquez three-ball from the right corner bounced high off the rim and dropped in to start an 8-2 Evangels streak capped off on Outon's fastbreak layup off of Kyleigh Leverich's full-court pass with 35 seconds left to send MACU into the break with a 37-20 advantage.
- Third Quarter
- An Olivia Bell three-pointer to start the second half briefly brought it down to a 14-point MACU edge before Littell's triple on the ensuing possession started a 7-2 Evangels surge as Outon's left-handed finish made it a 44-25 game with 8:35 on the clock.
- Central Christian chipped away at the Evangels' advantage over the next two minutes as a 7-2 Tigers streak closed it back to 14 at 46-32.
- After CCCK managed to keep it to within 14 over the next few minutes, the Evangels were able to stretch the advantage back out to 19 off of buckets from Ashley Hopper and Shy Christopher before a Christopher foul shot set the score 53-34 with 2:31 remaining.
- Mid-America Christian went cold over the final two minutes as a pair of Tigers foul shots made it a 53-36 game going into the final period.
- Fourth Quarter
- The Tigers clamped down on MACU through the first 4:37 of the fourth quarter as the Evangels were held to without a point while CCCK scored seven unanswered. A Mattie Rich foul shot with 6:17 remaining closed the gap to 53-43.
- A Leverich three-pointer at the 5:22 mark finally got the Evangels on-the-board in the quarter before Outon followed it up on the ensuing possession with another triple to push the edge back out to 59-43 with 4:31 left.
- Central Christian once again battled back to bring the gap down to 11 at 59-48 on Winsea's three with 1:58 left.
- The Evangels closed out the contest with six-unanswered behind a pair of Leverich free throws and a layup to go with a Coleman lay-in to ultimately secure the 65-48 final.
- While the Evangels struggled on the offensive end, shooting just 24-for-62 (38.7 percent) from the field, Mid-America Christian had a ton of success from the three-point arc by knocking down 8-of-20 (40 percent) from downtown.
- The MACU defense stymied the Tigers into shooting just 17-of-58 (29.3 percent). The Tigers particularly lived and died by the three as CCCK could only muster 7-for-31 (22.6 percent) from behind the arc.
- The Evangels dominated the glass, outrebounding the Tigers 54-30 with a 14-5 edge on the offensive glass.
- Despite MACU having better success shooting the ball, the Evangels lost the turnover battle by committing 23 miscues while forcing just 16 Tigers turnovers.
- Whitney Outon led the MACU offensive and rebounding efforts with a game-high 16 points on a 7-for-13 shooting clip, including going 2-for-2 from three-point range while tallying a double-double with 12 boards.
- Jaci Littell was the only other Evangel to crack into double-digit scoring with 12 points on 4-of-11 shooting, but went 2-for-5 from three-point land to go with three assists.
- Kyleigh Leverich led the MACU distribution efforts with a team-high five assists to go with seven points and six rebounds.
- Mid-America Christian has now won 17 straight games against the Tigers dating back to the 2006-07 season.
- By getting the win, the Evangels remained unbeaten with a 6-0 record and 2-0 in Sooner Athletic Conference play while the Tigers fell to 0-6 with an 0-2 league mark.
Original source can be found here
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