It wasn't the outcome Harper Taylor wanted, but she had few qualms with the way her Kansas Wesleyan women's basketball team played against the 22nd-ranked team in the NAIA.
The Coyotes lost to Evangel 96-89 in a Kansas Conference game Saturday afternoon inside Mabee Arena but gave the Valor a battle for the full 40 minutes.
"I thought we gave it everything we had, I thought they had a lot of fight," Taylor said on the postgame radio show. "We just needed a couple more possessions."
Evangel (15-1, 12-0 KCAC) shot 58 percent for the game (36 of 62) including a blistering 63 percent in the first half (20 of 32), but the Coyotes would not quit. They shot 44 percent (30 of 68), forced 15 turnovers while committing just nine and won the rebounding battle 34-33.
Odessa Ozuna, KWU's irrepressible point guard, led the way with 21 points, five assists and four rebounds. Izzy McCool had 19 points and eight rebounds, Anna Jueneman came off the bench and contributed 17 points, three rebounds and two steals and Jocelyn Hall grabbed 10 rebounds to go along with six points.
A 7-0 Evangel run in the second quarter extended the lead to 41-32. KWU (9-9, 6-6 KCAC) promptly answered with a 9-2 surge then scored seven of the last 11 points in the quarter to trail 52-48 at halftime.
The Valor built a 60-53 lead with 7½ minutes remaining in the third quarter, but the Coyotes responded once again with a 6-0 surge to get within 60-59.
A blowout appeared in the offing when Evangel scored the first five points of the fourth quarter and led by 15 three times, the third 85-70.
Undaunted as usual, KWU scored nine unanswered points to get within 85-79 with 3:40 left. Evangel built the lead back to nine (92-83), but four consecutive Ozuna points made it 92-87 with 1:19 left.
The Valor closed it out with four free throws in the final 51.6 seconds.
"There were a lot of good learning lessons and a lot of things we can take away from the game," Taylor said. "It was a great effort, but it just wasn't good enough."
Junior center Heaven Shockley led five Valor players in double figures with 24 points on 11 of 15 shooting.
The Valor was 7 of 12 from 3-point range while KWU was 3 of 18. The Coyotes thrived at the free throw line, making 26 of their 30 attempts. Evangel was 17 of 20.