Wildcats Drop Home Heart Matchup vs. Evangel, 68-62

BALDWIN CITY, Kan. – The Baker women's basketball team took visiting Evangel down to the wire, trailing by just two points with a minute left in the game. But the Valor made the most of their trips to the free throw line to escape with a 68-62 victory here Wednesday night in a Heart of America Conference matchup.

The Wildcats were led by 14 points apiece from Ainsley Tolson and Emma Cunningham while sharpshooter Macey Frost scored double figures as well with 11 points. The other two BU starters, Leah Van Weelden and Sophia Barrett, each chipped in nine points.

Baker held Evangel's top-three leading scorers to just seven points in the contest, but the Valor received a huge boost from their reserves with 40 of their points coming from their bench. EU also won the turnover battle, forcing 27 BU miscues while only committing 13 turnovers on its end.

For the third straight game, Baker was the one to jump out to an early lead. Cunningham supplied a couple of early buckets to give the Wildcats a quick 6-0 lead. The Valor wouldn't get their first points of the game until four minutes had ticked off, but after a Frost three they would go on to tie the game at 9-9. An Evangel triple in the closing seconds of the opening quarter broke the deadlock to give the visitors a 14-11 advantage.

In the second quarter, it was Cunningham again who kickstarted the scoring with a couple of layups sandwiched around a Barrett bucket to make it a one-point game. From there, Evangel rattled off a 10-4 run to increase their lead to 28-21.

The Wildcats kept things close by converting at the charity stripe, going 7-for-8 at the line in the period. After Frost brought Baker within one again, the Valor scored a pair of baskets – including one at the buzzer – to take a 33-28 lead into halftime.

After regrouping at the intermission, Baker came out hot in the second half, scoring eight straight points to take its first lead since the first quarter. Frost and Tolson teamed up for back-to-back triples to punctuate the early run.

With the two teams trading baskets, Cunningham continued to be a force in the paint as her layup out of a Baker timeout gave the home side a 41-40 lead. Later, Van Weelden collected a long pass from Tolson on a runout to extend the Wildcats' lead to three points. But Evangel was able to close out a quarter on another scoring stretch as they went on to carry a 49-45 advantage into the final frame.

In the fourth quarter, the Valor converted three crucial three-point plays – two of which came by the old-fashioned way – to keep the Wildcats from retaking the lead. Facing an eight-point deficit, Baker's Emina Hadzihusejnovic hit a huge three at the five-minute mark to bring the home crowd to its feet.

The Wildcats got within four following a pair of Barrett free throws, but on the next trip down, Evangel's Sadie Chisum knocked down a jumper and made the ensuing free throw to push the Valor's lead out to seven.

Frost's third triple of the game cut the EU lead to 60-56 with 1:37 remaining and a Van Weelden layup a few seconds later made it a two-point contest heading into the final minute of play. The Valor hit a jumper on the next possession and went on to add a pair of free throws before Tolson's layup with 30 seconds left brought the Wildcats within four again.

But it was Evangel's defense that came up big again as they forced a turnover before going on to ice the game from the free throw line for a 68-62 victory.

With the loss, Baker moves to 5-5 on the year and 1-4 in conference play. They will wrap up their final conference game of the calendar year on Saturday, Dec. 17 with a matchup against Culver-Stockton at 12 p.m., inside the Collins Center.

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