Adam Stanek – MACU Sports Information
FORT WORTH, Texas – The Mid-America Christian women’s basketball team trailed by as much as 11 in the second half, but continued to fight back behind some stellar defense to come away with a 70-66 road win at Texas Wesleyan on Saturday afternoon.
STAT LEADERS
- Presley Payahsape – 27 PTS, 11-18 FG, 5-9 3FG, 5 REB, 1 AST, 1 STL
- Ossyana Ozoani – 17 PTS, 7-10 FG, 5 REB, 2 STL
- Anna Kash – 8 PTS, 5 REB, 5 AST, 1 STL
- Sydney Wycoff – 6 PTS, 6 REB, 2 AST, 2 STL
GAME SUMMARY
- 1st Quarter
- Presley Payahsape (Mvskoke Creek) gave Mid-America Christian the early lead, scoring MACU’s first seven points on a three-pointer and a pair of pull-up jumpers to make it 7-3 just 2:44 in.
- TWU’s Makayla Coy and Hailee Walls scored on back-to-back possessions to tie the game up at 7-all with 6:25 left in the quarter.
- The Evangels answered with a 10-2 run that featured five points from Lexi Hernandez as well as a three from Sydney Wycoff and a layup by Ossyana Ozoani to extend the MACU lead to 17-9 with 2:54 to go.
- TWU’s Lindsey Thorpe buried a three with 2:01 remaining to cut the Lady Rams deficit to 17-12 as neither team scored another point for the remainder of the quarter.
- 2nd Quarter
- MACU once again jumped out to a fast start as a Payahsape three from the top of the key and a fastbreak Ozoani layup off a nice Hernandez pass gave the Evangels their largest lead of the game at 22-12.
- Texas Wesleyan quickly got back into the contest by going on a 9-2 run over a 1:12 stretch to reduce the MACU edge to 24-21 with 7:25 to go.
- After Anna Kash buried a three from the right corner with 5:14 left to stretch the MACU advantage back to 29-25, but the Lady Rams went on a 12 unanswered run to jump ahead by a score of 37-29 with 1:42 on the clock.
- Ozoani finished strong, capping off an and-one with 1:29 left to stop the run, but Texas Wesleyan scored the final four points of the period to hold a 41-32 advantage at the halftime break.
- 3rd Quarter
- After TWU scored four of the first six points to take its largest lead of the contest at 45-34, Mid-America Christian surged back with seven unanswered behind a pair of threes from Hernandez and Payahsape to go with a Kash free throw to trim the deficit to 45-41 with 6:47 left.
- Texas Wesleyan responded with an 8-2 run of its own to swell the Lady Rams’ advantage back to 51-41 with 4:50 remaining.
- The MACU defense clenched down on the Lady Rams, holding TWU scoreless for the remainder of the period. The Evangels strung together five straight during this stretch behind two Aneli Thomsen free throws and a Sydney Wycoff three-point play with 1:30 left to head into the fourth quarter trailing by just five at 53-48.
- 4th Quarter
- Payahsape rattled off five points on a jumper and three-pointer during a 7-2 run to start the final period, tying the game up at 55 with 8:11 to go.
- Both teams exchanged 4-0 runs while TWU’s Coy and MACU’s Ozoani notched scores on back-to-back possessions to lead to a 61-all tie with 3:29 left.
- With the Lady Rams up by two, Payahsape buried a three with 2:35 left to give MACU its first lead since the 3:38 mark in the second quarter, making it a 64-63 Evangels edge.
- The game was locked up at 66 before Payahsape knocked down a clutch running midrange jumper with 1:08 to go to give MACU the lead for good.
- Mid-America Christian came up with a huge defensive stop on the ensuing possession and Ozoani put the game away on a shot clock beating layup with nine seconds left to secure the 70-66 victory.
GAME NOTES
- After getting outscored 29-15 in the second quarter, Mid-America Christian dominated the second half by outscoring Texas Wesleyan 38-25, which included a monster fourth quarter that saw the Evangels outscore TWU 22-13.
- In that fourth quarter, the Evangels shot 9-for-15 (60 percent) from the field and 2-for-3 (66.7 percent) from three to finish 27-of-61 (44.3 percent) and 9-for-29 (31 percent) from range for the contest.
- The Mid-America Christian defense shut down Texas Wesleyan in the second half. After shooting 15-for-28 (53.6 percent), including 6-for-11 (54.5 percent) from three in the first half, the Evangels limited the Lady Rams to only 11-of-32 (34.4 percent) shooting in the second half, which included 0-for-6 from behind the arc.
- Presley Payahsape (Mvskoke Creek) led the way with a career-high 27-point outburst, knocking down 11-for-18 from the field and 5-of-9 from three-point range to go with five rebounds. It was Payahsape’s second 20-point game of the season after she tied a career-best 20 points in her Evangels debut against Oklahoma Wesleyan back on Oct. 23.