Southwestern Assemblies of God University (SAGU) women’s basketball Oklahoma Wesleyan Classic
In 2015-2016 SAGU went 18-14 overall and finished 10-8 in the Sooner Athletic Conference . They finished their season playing at the NCCAA regionals in Colorado.
Second year head coach Tiffany Phillips is looking to expand on last year’s success. Phillips will be returning Charity Page , Laken Ward and Alexis McAfee to provide senior leadership. Senior forwards Charity Page and Laken Ward were both a force to be reckoned with under the basket for SAGU. Page averaged nearly 12.5 points per game and over eight rebounds per game. Page ranked no. 20 in the nation in all of the NAIA for total rebounds (257).
Ward averaged 10 points per game and eight rebounds per game as well. Ward isn’t far behind Page in the national rankings when it comes to total rebounds. She comes in at 28 in the NAIA in total rebounds with 246.
Alexis McAfee led the Lady Lions in steals. She had nearly 50 steals for the season and Phillips will rely heavily on her to be the spark on defense for her team, “We have been working extremely hard especially on the defensive end of the floor. We have a lot of young players who didn’t play a lot of man to man defense in high school and so we are doing a lot of teaching right now. I believe in defense and I think it will win us some games early in the year when our offense is trying to find its identity.”
SAGU graduated three senior guard from last year’s squad; Meghan Becker , Bethany Krock and Taylor Hill . Coach Phillips 
made a point to recruit guards with strong shooting. She will be looking to freshman Taylor Sims to take over the point guard position vacated by Hill. In her senior season, Sims averaged over 17 points per game, 4.4 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 3.8 steals per game.
Lexi Rich is a 5’8 shooting guard from San Antonio. As a senior in high school, Rich averaged nearly 14 points per game. She made 79 three pointers for the season, shooting for 33% behind the arc. Kayla Bise is a transfer-sophomore from Union University. While at UU, she helped the team go 28-4 while seeing playing time as a freshman.
Freshman Korede Ahmedu will bring new height down below for the lady Lions. The 6’2 center is originally from Nigeria but has spent the last three years playing for North Central Texas Academy in Granbury, Texas. While at North Central she won two state championships and is a two time All-State Selection TAPPS. She averaged 15 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks a game.
“We brought in a lot of players who I feel could make an impact immediately but they will have to grow up fast,” says Phillips.
Phillips has also been heavily emphasizing shooting in practice, “I thought last year we struggled shooting the ball consistently and with this group we have a bunch of girls who can shoot and make shots on a consistent basis. Last year we kind of struggled offensively at times and I learned my lesson from that and brought in some offensive-minded players.”
Last year, SAGU finished tied for fourth place with John Brown University in the Sooner Athletic Conference (SAC) . This year in the preseason poll, SAGU was picked by the coaches to finish seventh in the conference. The Lady Lions will begin their season this weekend at the Oklahoma Wesleyan University Basketball Classic. On Friday, October 28, 2016 they play OKWU at 6pm. On Saturday, October 29, 2016 they play Bellevue at 2pm.
Southwestern Assemblies of God University is a private, Christian university located 30 minutes south of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in Waxahachie, Texas. The university was established in 1927, and now offers more than 70 associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees on campus or online. More information is available at www.sagu.edu or by calling 1-888-YES-SAGU.
Contact: Natalie Tristan, SAGU SID, [email protected]
