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Mid-America Christian University Shy Christopher Earns NCCAA Central Region Player of the Year, Women’s Basketball Tabs Three on All-Region Team

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Shy Christopher/Women's Basketball | Mid-America Christian University

Shy Christopher/Women's Basketball | Mid-America Christian University

The National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) announced its 2022-23 Division I Women's Basketball All-Central Region Team on (date) as three members of the MACU women's basketball team earned All-Region distinctions with sophomore guard Shy Christopher headlining the group by being named the NCCAA Central Region Player of the Year.

Christopher was joined by junior guard Jaci Littell on the First Team while graduate student guard Sydney Wycoff earned Second Team accolades.

Due to being named to the First Team, Christopher and Littell will be eligible for NCCAA All-American accolades with the honors being announced at the conclusion of the national tournament.

In her first season with the Evangels, Christopher helped guide MACU to another sensational season as the team finished the year with a 23-7 record and qualified for its third straight NAIA Tournament.

The Jacksonville, Ark. native became just the seventh Evangel since the program joined the NAIA and NCCAA Division I level in 2007 to score 500 or more points in a season, ending the campaign with 508 points while posting the fifth-highest scoring average in the same time frame at 18.1 points per game.

Christopher also found herself in the program's single-season record book for made field goals (190, 6th), field goal percentage (49.1, 5th), made free throws (117, 6th) and free throws attempted (165, 6th).

The dynamic 5-7 guard reached the 20-point plateau on 11 different occasions during 2022-23 season, which included scoring a career-high 28 points at Texas Wesleyan on Jan. 2 before matching it in a crucial 77-56 win at No. 19 Science & Arts on Feb. 2.

After putting together that 28-point game against the Drovers and dropping 25 points in a 90-66 win over No. 17 Texas Wesleyan on Feb. 4, Christopher became just one of four players from the Central Region to receive the NCCAA DI Women's Basketball Student-Athlete of the Week distinction.

Another newcomer to the Evangels, Littell also put up incredible offensive numbers, finishing the year with 437 points to average the 10th-best scoring average in the NAIA Era at 16.2 ppg. The Stillwater, Okla. product did most of her damage from behind the arc as she knocked down the eighth-most threes (65) on a blistering 39.2 percent clip while also setting the second-best free throw percentage rate at 85.1 percent after going 114-for-134 from the charity stipe.

The 5-10 guard was also a tough presence on the defensive end for MACU as she led the team with 41 steals, averaging 1.5 thefts per game.

Much like Christopher, Littell was also an NCCAA Student-Athlete of the Week honoree after scoring 27 points at Texas Wesleyan on Jan. 2, a career-high 34 points against UNT Dallas on Jan. 5 and wrapped up the week with a 20-point game at Southwestern Assemblies of God on Jan. 7.

Littell also made her mark in MACU's NAIA Era single-game record book as well when she buried 14-of-15 free throws at UNT Dallas on Feb. 9, tying the second-most made in a game alongside Sarai Rodriguez and Jamie Lamb.

Wrapping up her fifth season with the Evangels, Wycoff put together a stellar graduate campaign as the team's starting point guard. Considered one of the best on-ball defenders in the Sooner Athletic Conference after receiving All-Defensive Team accolades, the Ankeny, Iowa native also made her presence felt on the offensive end.

Leading the team with 93 assists, the 5-6 point turned in one of the best assist-turnover ratios in the NCCAA as she ranked sixth in the nation with a 2.0 rate. Wycoff wrapped up her historic MACU career as one of the team's all-time leader in dimes, ranking second in the NAIA Era book with 319.

Overall, Wycoff will go down as one of the best point guards to ever dawn an Evangels uniform as she also holds career top 10 mark in rebounds (458, 6th), assists per game (2.7, 8th), steals (149, 4th), field goal percentage (44.7, 6th), made free throws (188, 8th), free throws attempted (273, 8th) and games played (120, 5th).

Original source can be found here

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