The Master's University signed on for the Texas Wesleyan Champions Classic, in part, because it wanted to see how it measured up against nationally ranked opponents from outside its region.
Friday, the Mustangs looked more like a group picked by NAIA coaches as the preseason No. 1.
Tim Soares buried his first five shots and Master's built a 20-point halftime lead on the way to an 86-76 win over No. 7 LSU Shreveport inside the Sid Richardson Center in Fort Worth, Texas.
The win came on the heels of a season-opening loss against No. 2 LSU Alexandria on Thursday, when the Mustangs nearly erased all of an early 28-point Generals lead, cutting the deficit to five in the closing minutes.
Friday followed an almost identical script – just the other way around.
Shreveport climbed within eight points of the Mustangs with four minutes to play. With the lead at 10 moments later,
Hansel Atencia went on the attack.
The point guard swept across the baseline and whipped the ball to
Delewis Johnson behind the three-point arc. Johnson's shot found the bottom of the net, all but securing TMU's first win of the season and its 51st win in its last 58 regular season games.
Atencia led the Mustangs with 18 points on 5-of-11 shooting. He dished out seven assists and made seven shots from the free throw line, where Master's went 25-of-36 as a group.
Johnson followed with 17 points, and Soares chipped in 16, shooting the ball only once after halftime.
The 6-foot-10 center got the Mustangs rolling early.
"Yesterday was a tough start, so I wanted to get us going," said Soares. "I shot it with confidence. In warm-ups, my shots were falling, so I knew a couple of them would go in, come game time."
They did.
Soares scored TMU's first five points, and his 3-pointer from the top of the key at the 10-minute mark gave Master's a 27-18 lead. TMU wasn't finished.
Atencia picked the pocket of a Pilot and slung the ball ahead to a dashing
Darryl McDowell-White (12 points). McDowell-White drove the lane, and skipped a pass behind his back to Johnson, who laid it in. It was 44-27.
TMU's advantage ballooned to 24 late in the half.
From the get-go, the Mustangs were active defensively, bothering LSUS shooters and holding them to 32% from the floor for the game. The Pilots scored three baskets inside the arc in the first half.
Coach
Kelvin Starr credited TMU's energy level with the strong start.
"These teams are legit," Starr said of Alexandria and Shreveport, who both hail from the Red River Athletic Conference. "If you're not ready, it can go south in a hurry."
Instead, Master's carried over the intensity and confidence it displayed in Thursday's second half.
"We didn't want to lose two in a row," Starr said. "And we knew we can play with these guys."
Master's won the battle on the boards 47-32. Soares pulled down 10 rebounds and Johnson and
Brock Gardner each had nine.
Kelvin Henry Jr. led Shreveport with 16 points. His basket with 1:54 to play cut the deficit to seven. But Atencia hit 6-of-6 free throws down the stretch to close it out.
It was turnovers that had cracked the door open.
The Mustangs gave the ball away 25 times in the game, and the Pilots turned it into 25 points.
The positives far outweighed the negative.
Master's shot 42% from three and 52% from the field, one day after the ball seemingly refused to dip inside the rim for the better part of the first half.
"We're all still frustrated about the loss yesterday," said Soares. "But everyone was excited to get back out there and prove we just had a bad day."
