By any measure, The Master's University women's basketball team was due for a lull in the schedule. The Mustangs opened the year with exhibitions against a team ranked in the top five of NCAA Division 2 and a road game at an NCAA Division 1 opponent.
But this is the most difficult schedule
Dan Waldeck has constructed in his 12 years as head coach and there would be no easy win Friday, the first day of the Bill Holtz Memorial tournament in Rocklin, California.
The Mustangs, ranked No. 4 in NAIA Division 1, faced off with Southeastern University from Florida, the No. 2-ranked team in NAIA Division 2, and Master's rose to the challenge.
The Mustangs trailed by two at half but pulled away with a fourth-quarter surge led by
Stephanie Soares and
Madi Hull, earning a 67-56 win in its regular-season opener.
Soares finished with 27 points and 14 rebounds on 10-of-16 shooting. She blocked three shots and combined with Hull to score each point during the Mustangs' closing 14-4 run in the fourth quarter. Hull tossed in all eight of her points during that span.
"I told them it was going to come down to unity and leadership," Waldeck said of what he told the team at halftime, when TMU trailed 35-33. "We needed to be tougher off the ball and had to keep them out of transition and get the game into our pace."
The Mustangs succeeded in each respect. They outscored the Fire 34-21 over the game's final 20 minutes, feeding the ball to Soares, an NAIA first-team All-American last year, and slowing down a Fire team that led by as many as nine in the first half. After turning the ball over 12 times before intermission, Master's only gave the ball away five times the rest of the game.
"We started playing more controlled and changed the pace of the game," said Soares, who went 7-for-9 at the free throw line.
Rebekah Throns added 12 points for Master's, and
Anika Neuman continued to produce well-rounded results. Neuman had nine points, four rebounds and four assists.
"My main role is to score," Neuman said, "but, yes, I've taken on that (playmaking) role to utilize everyone's ability to shoot. Steph and I read each other really well so it comes naturally for us to play-make for each other."
It was Throns who carried the Mustangs in the early going, making all four of her shots in the first half, including two three-pointers.
"She attacked well and started off hot behind the arc," Soares said.
Master's finally pulled even at 35-all in the opening minutes of the third quarter, and it led by five heading to the fourth, a period in which it showed marked improvement its last time out.
The Mustangs struggled to handle Azusa Pacific's defensive pressure in the fourth quarter of an exhibition with the NCAA Division 2 program on Oct. 24, letting what had been a 12-point lead slip away. But Master's rebounded to beat NCAA Division 1 CSUN on Tuesday after the Matadors had cut a 20-point lead to one early in the fourth quarter.
The Mustangs showed that result wasn't a fluke on Friday after Southeastern, which reached the NAIA Division 2 title game last year, came within one point with five minutes remaining.
Hull answered immediately with a personal 5-0 run. After Soares scored four of her 18 second-half points, Hull connected on her second three-pointer with 1:14 left to extend TMU's lead to 11.
"Southeastern is an excellent team," Waldeck said. "I thought our team did an amazing job. We only had five turnovers in the second half, and we executed really well."
Master's will close the tournament Saturday morning at 10 against Oregon Tech.
