The MACU women’s basketball team led by as much as 14 points in the first half, but the Evangels struggled to slow down Oklahoma City in the second half as the Stars scored 52 points over the final 20 minutes to pull out a 73-71 upset over MACU at Redlands Community College on Saturday afternoon.
TOP PERFORMERS
- Shy Christopher – 22 Points, 6-15 FG, 10-11 FT, 7 Reb
- Jaci Littell – 13 Points, 5-7 FT, 4 Reb, 3 Assists
- Alexis Borgstadt – 7 Points, 3-7 FG, 3 Reb, 2 Steals
GAME SUMMARY
- First Quarter
- After OCU’s Annilia Dawn and Sydney Wycoff traded three-pointers to start off the game, both teams went through a cold spell as both teams were held to just two points over the next two minutes. An Amaya Gordon jumper with 7:10 to go tied it up at 5-5.
- The Mid-America Christian (13-4, 7-4 SAC) defense shut down Oklahoma City (8-8, 5-6 SAC) over the next six minutes as the Evangels strung together a 7-0 run capped off on a Shy Christopher lay-in pushed the lead out to 12-5 with 2:07 left.
- Another Dawn three with 1:31 left finally ended the OCU drought, but Kyleigh Leverich immediately answered on the next possession with a three-bomb from the left corner to push it back out to a seven-point advantage.
- Sydney Savage knocked down one of two free throws with 45 seconds left to extend the Evangels’ edge to 16-8 going into the second quarter.
- Second Quarter
- A Savage offensive rebound and putback followed by a pair of Christopher foul shots quickly pushed the MACU advantage to 20-8 just over a minute into the second period.
- The two squads traded the next five buckets before Hallie Reed extended the Evangels’ edge to 27-14 with a three-ball from the left corner with five minutes to go.
- The Evangels maintained their double-digit advantage before taking their largest lead of the contest at the 2:12 mark when Christopher scored the hoop and the harm, finishing off the three-point play to make it a 34-20 game.
- Neither team was able to score a point over the final two minutes until Gordon knocked down one-of-two free throws to send the game into the break at 34-21.
- Third Quarter
- Gordon and Christopher traded jumpers to start the second half, but OCU strung together a 10-1 run over a 2:37 stretch, closing it to 37-33 on a Cacie Gorman layup with 6:12 to go.
- Alexis Borgstadt ripped down an offensive board and scooped in a left-handed shot to ignite a 7-1 run as a Leverich three led up to a Borgstadt lay-in to push the MACU advantage back out to double-digits 44-34 with 3:43 remaining.
- Mid-America Christian maintained a three-possession lead over the final three minutes before Fiona Wilson converted a three-point play with 25 seconds left to close it to 47-41 going into the final period.
- Fourth Quarter
- Borgstadt opened the fourth with a three-point play to extend the MACU edge to nine, but Oklahoma City rattled off a 13-5 run to trim it to a 55-54 game on a Ray Osborn three-point play with just under seven minutes left.
- Littell knocked down a pair of foul shots on the ensuing possession to briefly stretch the advantage back to three, but the Stars swung back with nine-unanswered streak to take their largest lead of the contest at 63-57 with 3:34 remaining.
- OCU maintained a two-possession advantage over the next three minutes, but Littell closed the gap to two on a tightly contested three from the top of the key before knocking down one of two free throws on the following possessions to set the score to 72-70 with 33 seconds to go.
- The Stars had an opportunity to push it back to a two-possession game with 24 seconds left, but Dawn missed a pair of free throws to give MACU the opportunity to tie or take the lead.
- On the Evangels’ final possession Savage and Christopher both missed opportunities at the rim, but Savage got fouled with 0.6 seconds left going up for a third chance, sending her to the line for two shots.
- Unfortunately for MACU, Savage missed the front end of the two free throws before the Stars added one more free throw on the final possession of the contest to wrap-up the 73-71 final.
GAME NOTES
- Offensively, the two teams were relatively even as Oklahoma City shot 24-for-60 (40 percent) from the field, but just 4-of-21 (19 percent) from three-point range and 21-for-33 (63.6 percent) from the free throw line. Meanwhile, Mid-America Christian knocked down 22-of-60 (36.7 percent) from the floor, 6-for-19 (31.6 percent) from three and 21-of-27 (77.8 percent) from the foul line.
- OCU scored 32 of its 73 points in the fourth quarter on a blistering 10-for-15 (66.7 percent) from the field and converted 11-for-17 from the charity stripe while MACU went 5-for-11 (45.5 percent) and converted 13-of-16 (81.3 percent) of its foul shots.
- The Stars dominated the rebounding and turnover battles as OCU held a 46-36 advantage on the glass while committing 16 turnovers to 22 for MACU.
- The Evangels only had two players finish in double-figures, led by Shy Christopher with 22 points on 6-of-15 shooting and knocked down 10-for-11 from the free throw line to go with seven boards.
- Littell also finished in double-digits with 13 points, but struggled from the field on a 3-for-11 clip, 2-for-6 from three and 5-of-7 from the line with four rebounds and a team-high three assists.
- Sydney Savage led MACU on the glass, yanking down a season-high eight rebounds, just one shy of her career-high.
- The Evangels had their three-game win streak against the Stars snapped in the defeat.
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