At one point early in Thursday's second half, Master's guard Darryl McDowell-White whipped a pass to Brock Gardner for a wide-open three-pointer. Before the shot, McDowell-White turned away: He'd seen enough over the last month to tell him exactly what would happen even without watching.
Sure enough, Gardner splashed one of his five 3-pointers on the way to another 40-point night, and the No. 2-ranked Mustangs needed almost every one of them in a 78-72 win over visiting La Sierra University.
Master's improved to 10-0 and earned its 44th straight home win. The Mustangs have not lost a non-conference game at home since December 2015.
For Gardner, it was the third time in five games he reached at least 40 points, highlighted by a career-high 43 last month. He is averaging 34.6 points on 59% shooting during that span.
Contrary to his reaction when he fed Gardner for three, McDowell-White has found Gardner's play to be must-see basketball.
"Nothing but fun seeing him go off and seeing his confidence go to another level," said McDowell-White, who finished with 14 points and two blocks.
McDowell-White hit a trio of three-pointers after halftime as the Mustangs built a 15-point lead. But the Golden Eagles shortly cut the deficit to single digits and kept it that way the rest of the night. In fact, La Sierra (4-9) twice came within two points of its hosts in the final three minutes.
But, on each occasion Gardner answered with a pair of free throws, the last two giving him 40 points to match his total from Nov. 21 against SAGU American Indian. However, that previous 40-point evening came in a rout. Thursday's came in a game that could have gone sideways.
Gardner made 13-of-26 shots, 5-of-11 from three and 9-of-11 at the line.
His most-crucial play came with 56 seconds remaining when he corralled a McDowell-White miss and put it back in to extend TMU's lead to five.
"I was just trying to create a spark or hand it off to someone else and let them get a bucket," Gardner said of his mindset down the stretch. "I knew we needed something at that time, and I got a bounce off the rim and was able to get the offensive rebound and put it back."
The fact that Wayland Baptist's J.J. Culver scored 100 points in a game earlier this week likely means Gardner won't repeat as NAIA Division 1 Player of the Week, but that hardly negated Gardner's value to the Mustangs Thursday.
"Brock's been a monster," said TMU head coach Kelvin Starr. "If he didn't get a little tired, he could have gone for 50."
Starr also praised the energy provided by Michael Taylor, who totaled season highs of 11 points and 13 rebounds and added a pair of rim-rattling dunks.
"I thought Mike was awesome tonight," Starr said.
Asked afterward if the home winning streak is something the team thinks about, McDowell-White said they don't — at least not before the game.
"Not until we add to it," he said.
Anton Mozga added six points and five rebounds for Master's, which will return to Golden State Athletic Conference play on Saturday at home against San Diego Christian. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.
