OKC Standard

The No. 25 MACU women's basketball team put together a sensational first half, leading by as much as 13 against Sooner Athletic Conference leader Texas Wesleyan, but the Evangels struggled on the offensive end in the second half, scoring just 27 points as MACU fell 82-74 inside the Sid Richardson Center on Monday night.

 

TOP PERFORMERS

• Shy Christopher – 28 Points, 8-18 FG, 11-15 FT, 3 Reb
• Jaci Littell – 27 Points, 9-22 FG, 6-12 3FG, 3-3 FT, 3 Reb
• Sydney Savage – 9 Points, 4-5 FG, 3 Reb

GAME SUMMARY

• First Quarter
  • Texas Wesleyan (12-1, 7-0 SAC) jumped out to an early 4-2 advantage through the first two minutes, but a Jaci Littell three from the right wing ignited an incredible 16-3 run featuring four Littell triples to swell the MACU lead to 18-7 with just under four minutes to go.
  • The Lady Rams slowly chipped the lead down to single-digits at 20-12 on a Taryn Wills layup with just over a minute left, but the Evangels finished strong in the final minute as Mid-America Christian (10-3, 4-3 SAC) outscored TWU 5-1 on a trio of free throws from Shy Christopher and Sydney Wycoff before Christopher banked in a running jumper in the lane at the buzzer, giving the Evangels their largest lead of the quarter at 25-13.
• Second Quarter
  • Another Wills lay-in on Texas Wesleyan's first possession gave the Lady Rams the early momentum as TWU strung together a nine-unanswered streak capped off on a Zionna Barbee three from the left wing to make it a one-score game at 25-22 with 8:10 remaining.
  • After a Christopher layup finally snapped the Evangels drought, the Lady Rams closed it to two-point game on a Mayakla Coy three-point play to set the score to 27-25 at the 6:55 mark.
  • Putting together a huge first quarter, Littell buried her fifth three-pointer of the game to stem the tide as the Mid-America Christian rattled off a 13-2 run behind three free throws apiece from Christopher and Tyaija Coleman to go with four strong points off the bench from Sydney Savage to push the MACU edge out to its largest of the half at 40-27 with 4:19 left.
  • The Evangels struggled offensively over the next three minutes as MACU was held to without a field goal during a 7-1 Lady Rams surge as a Ketisa Amos midrange jumper with 1:35 left closed it to 41-34.
  • Back-to-back layups from Littell and Kyleigh Leverich briefly pushed the MACU advantage back out to double-figures, but the Lady Rams scored the final three points of the period to make it a 45-37 game going into the break.
• Third Quarter
  • Texas Wesleyan scored 10 unanswered points out of the half as Wills layup with 7:18 to go gave the Lady Rams their first lead since early in the first quarter at 47-45.
  • Quickly on the ensuing possession, Littell got down the court quickly, knocked down the fastbreak layup and drew the and-one foul to put MACU back in-front. Texas Wesleyan briefly gained the lead back on another Wills bucket, but Christopher banked in a three from the right wing to give the Evangels a 51-50 edge with 5:49 left.
  • After a Christopher free throw tied it at 52, the Lady Rams swung back in-front by scoring seven of the next nine as Amos' three from the left corner gave TWU its largest lead of the contest at that point at 59-54 with just over two minutes to go.
  • The Evangels surged back in-front off a string of seven straight as a Christopher layup and a Savage three-point play tied it up before Littell made it a 61-59 contest with 51 seconds left.
  • Texas Wesleyan scored the next three to retake the lead, but Savage finished off the period with a lay-in with four seconds left to give MACU the 63-62 edge going into the final quarter of play.
• Fourth Quarter
  • The two teams exchanged leads off a Zarria Carter jumper and a pair of Christopher foul shots, but Texas Wesleyan's defense clamed down on MACU for a four-minute stretch as six unanswered Lady Rams points put TWU ahead 70-65 with 6:52 remaining on a Coy jumper.
  • Littell's sixth three-pointer closed the gap to two with 5:41 left, but that would be the closest MACU would come as TWU scored the next three to push it back out to 73-68 at the 4:24 mark.
  • Another Christopher layup brought it back to within a single-possession at 75-72 with 1:48 to go, but the Evangels struggled to score the rest of the way as Texas Wesleyan closed out the contest by scoring seven of the final nine, going 7-for-8 from the foul line to pull out the 82-74 win.

GAME NOTES

• After shooting 20-for-43 (46.5 percent) through the first three quarters, including 6-of-15 (40 percent) from three, Mid-America Christian struggled from the field in the fourth quarter, going 4-for-17 (23.5 percent) from the floor and 1-of-5 (20 percent) from the three-point arc.
• Overall, Texas Wesleyan and Mid-America Christian shot an even 40 percent from the field as TWU went 28-for-70 and MACU 24-of-60, but the Lady Rams were able to get to the foul line more often as TWU buried 24-of-35 (68.6 percent) attempts while the MACU made 19-for-25 (76 percent) from the charity stripe.
• Texas Wesleyan dominated both the rebounding battle and the floor game as TWU out-boarded the Evangels 43-28, including 16-9 on the offensive glass. The Lady Rams also committed just 10 turnovers to 17 for MACU.
• Most of the MACU offense ran through the SAC Player of the Week Shy Christopher and Jaci Littell as the two combined to score 55 of MACU's 74 points. Christopher scored a new career-high 28 points on 8-of-18 shooting and went 11-for-15 from the free throw line while Littell finished with 27 points on 9-of-22 from the field and 6-for-12 from the three-point arc to go with 3-of-3 on free throws.
• Sydney Savage provided a spark off the MACU bench, scoring a season-high nine points on 4-of-5 shooting to go with three rebounds.
• Tyaija Coleman led the MACU rebounding efforts with a career-high eight rebounds while Whitney Outon dished out a team-high three assists.
• With the defeat, Mid-America Christian has now lost back-to-back games to Texas Wesleyan after suffering a 74-55 defeat to the Lady Rams in the SAC Semifinal last season.

Original source can be found here