One streak ended and another was extended Saturday night in Santa Barbara.
Darryl McDowell-White made sure of both.
The senior's driving layup with 1.6 seconds left on the clock lifted No. 7 The Master's University to a thrilling 70-69 win over No. 4 Westmont in Murchison Gym. The victory snapped the Mustangs' two-game losing skid and extended their winning streak against the Warriors to seven in a row.
McDowell-White's heroics capped a wild final minute and made sure
Tim Soares' Herculean effort didn't go to waste.
After trailing by as many as 12 in the second half, the Mustangs roared back to take the lead in the night's waning moments. With 1:01 remaining,
Brock Gardner hit a pair of free throws to put Master's ahead by three.
Moments later, Westmont's Gyse Hulsebosch tied the score with an off-balance 3-pointer. But
Jordan Starr scored in the paint with 20 seconds remaining to swing things back in TMU's favor. It would have been the game-winner had the Mustangs not left Hunter Snipe alone in the corner for a go-ahead 3-pointer with eight seconds remaining. Instead, the Mustangs were forced to take a timeout and inbound the ball near midcourt with little time remaining and their first three-game losing skid in more than three years staring them in the face.
That's when McDowell-White took an in-bounds pass, drove around one Westmont defender and then beat another before flipping the ball off the glass and into the hoop.
"Once he split the two defenders, I knew he was going to make the layup," said TMU senior center
Tim Soares, who finished with game highs of 26 points and 11 rebounds.
Gardner, who contributed 18 points, added, "Honestly, I saw Darryl cross over going downhill and I knew it was going in from there. Then, we were able to get a hand on their last-second shot to finish it."
The Mustangs (15-3, 5-2 GSAC) haven't dropped three games in a row since the 2015-16 season and the victory kept them in a three-way tie (Arizona Christian and William Jessup) for second place in the GSAC, one game behind Westmont (17-2, 6-1 GSAC).
"That was a huge win for us," said TMU head coach
Kelvin Starr. "Tim played like an All-American tonight and we had many big-time contributions. Westmont is a very, very good team."
The Mustangs fell behind by 12 in the first minute of the second half, but rallied back behind Soares and Gardner to earn a signature victory. The pair of All-American-candidate post players combined to score 25 of TMU's 40 points after halftime.
"Our threes weren't falling," Gardner said. "So, we went inside and were able to be very efficient. We rebounded well also and Tim was a monster."
After three straight games away from home, TMU returns to Bross Court at the MacArthur Center next Thursday evening to host Vanguard in a 7:30 p.m. start.
