The Mustangs entered Saturday night on a 45-game home winning streak.
Not since Hope International beat Master's by 32 points on Jan. 7, 2017, had the Mustangs failed to win inside the MacArthur Center. And TMU's inspired performance Saturday made sure nothing of the sort would play out in this meeting between NAIA Division 1 top-15 teams.
Tim Soares set the tone early in an 89-61 win over No. 15 Hope International, flushing a powerful dunk on TMU's first possession on his way to 19 points.
Darryl McDowell-White finished with 19 points and five assists, and
Brock Gardner had 14 points, seven rebounds and six assists for the No. 2-ranked Mustangs, who ran out to a 15-3 lead and remained in control throughout the night. Â
Michael Taylor added 13 points and 10 rebounds, and
Jordan Starr had 14 points and six assists.
"Sometimes it takes us a while to get going," Soares said. "But today it was minute one."
In a matchup of the GSAC's top two defenses, the Mustangs (14-1, 4-0 GSAC) smothered the Royals (12-3, 2-2) with a swarming, energetic effort. Soares said afterward he wasn't sure if he'd seen a TMU team play harder for 40 minutes than it did Saturday. The stats didn't argue.
The Mustangs held Hope to 33% shooting from the floor and 22% from distance.
Eric Toles led the Royals with 21 points, but only one other Hope player finished in double figures.
TMU, on the other hand, had all five starters contribute at least 10 points for the first time this season.
"It makes it hard to scout us," Soares said. "It's hard to key in on somebody because then somebody else will be wide open."
Said TMU head coach
Kelvin Starr, "It speaks to the selflessness of the team. I think offensively we're starting to play better than we were when we were trying to figure all this stuff out with new people."
Starr attributed at least some of the overall offensive improvement to the play of Taylor, who has provided the team not only with energy but a scoring touch around the basket of late. Saturday, the 6-foot-6 forward stepped out and hit a long jump shot.
The Mustangs have also received plenty of scoring from McDowell-White, who followed up an electric performance in the second half of Tuesday's narrow win over the University of Calgary with another dynamic performance Saturday. He curled off screens and fired his signature off-balance three-pointers that sunk through the basket.
McDowell-White made 5-of-9 from long distance in the game. His three-pointer shortly after halftime gave the Mustangs a 19-point advantage. They went on to lead by as many as 36 against a Hope International team that entered the night with the best scoring defense in the conference and sixth in the country (63.8 points per game).
Master's was ranked second in the conference and 15th nationally in scoring defense, and an inspired showing on that end saw the Royals score only 24 points in the first half on 9-for-33 shooting.
"We played with so much intensity that it was hard for them to match it," Soares said.
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