BETHANY, Okla. (macbulldogs.com) --- The McPherson College women's basketball team closed out its pre-holiday schedule with a 79-61 loss Thursday night to NAIA Division I Southwestern Christian University at Pickens-Springer Gymnasium.
After the teams traded 3-pointers to open the game, McPherson scored the next five points on a
Kristina Battle (Houston, Texas, Austin HS) 3-pointer and a baseline layup by
Cami Richardson (Hesston, Kan., Hesston HS) to put McPherson up 8-3.
Southwestern Christian rallied for eight in a row on 3-pointers from Maranda Janz and Kylee Severin and a layup by Andi McGill to take an 11-8 lead.
Danielle Holt (Glenpool, Okla., Glenpool HS) stopped the streak when she put back a Battle miss and
Brooke Racette (Hutchinson, Kan., Trinity Catholic HS) hit a three from the elbow to give the Bulldogs a 13-11 lead. The Eagles countered with a floater from Janz to tie the game.
Tied at 18 after one quarter, the teams traded buckets to start the second. After
Isabella Bacon (Sapulpa, Okla., Sapulpa HS) hit a three to put McPherson up 23-20, the Eagles rattled off nine straight points to move in front 29-23 before Battle got a steal and a fastbreak hoop with 3:07 to play. The basket ended a scoreless streak of four minutes, 33 seconds for the Bulldogs.
Holt added a baseline layup with just under two minutes left to cut the advantage to 29-27. Eliora Johnson grabbed the rebound off a contested shot and drained the putback to make a four-point game. Holt responded with a layup on the other end, but Johnson drained a 3-pointer at the horn to give Southwestern Christian a 34-29 halftime lead.
SCU opened the second half with an 11-6 run to a push the lead to double-digits as the third quarter passed its halfway mark. The lead remained around 10 points until the waning seconds of the quarter when Holt was fouled on a fast break layup and converted the ensuing free throw to cut Eagle lead to 49-42 headed to the fourth quarter.
The hosts were able keep the Bulldogs at arms-length throughout the opening half of the final stanza with a Bacon 3-pointer cutting the SCU advantage to seven at 62-55 with 4:12 to play. From there, the Eagles were able to use an 8-1 to put the game out of reach. Southwestern Christian made nine of 10 free throws down the stretch to ice the game.
Both teams shot over 50 percent in the first half and while the Eagles were able to maintain their hot shooting in the second (52.0 percent; 13-of-25), the Bulldogs cooled off considerably. McPherson was just 8-of-28 from the field in the second half and finished at 39.2 percent (20-of-51) for the game.
Both teams also got to the line considerably more in the second half than the first. The teams combined for one free throw attempt - a make by Johnson - but finished with 38 free throws for the game. McPherson was 13-of-15, while SCU was 18-of-23.
Three players reached double digits for each team with Holt and Battle tallying 14 each for the Bulldogs. Holt added a game-high eight rebounds, while Battled had two boards, two assists and two steals. Bacon added 12 points on four 3-pointers,
Maressah Milum (Douglas, Kan., Independence CC) had eight points and four assists and Racette finished with seven points and four steals.
Johnson took game-high honors for SCU with 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Janz added 16, while McGill had 15 points and six assists.
The Bulldogs are idle until Dec. 29-30 when they compete at the Kansas Wesleyan University Rib Crib Coyote Classic at Mabee Arena in Salina. McPherson faces Northern New Mexico College at 4 p.m. on Dec. 29, then plays Dakota State University at 2 p.m. on Dec. 30.
