The Master's University women's basketball team wanted to celebrate Senior Night with a win.
A win that could have also put the Mustangs a leg up in the race for the GSAC regular-season championship.
Instead, Westmont spoiled both of those things, using a 20-point fourth quarter to pull away from TMU for a 56-44 victory.
"The reality is we haven't played in nine days and it showed," said Mustang head coach
Dan Waldeck. "They played better than we did. They deserved to win."
Junior forward
Anika Neuman paced Master's with 17 points.
She was the only Mustang in double figures on a night when the team was held to its lowest point total of the season.
Sophomore center
Stephanie Soares was limited to nine points, but she took down a game-high 15 rebounds.
The Mustangs shot just 36% from the field and were just 1-of-12 from three-point range.
Westmont shot 34.8% from the field and hit eight threes.
"It wasn't our defense," said Waldeck. "It was our offense, missed two many free throws, turned the ball over too many times."
The Mustangs went 7-of-14 from the line and had 14 turnovers.
Westmont scored 12 points off Mustang turnovers.
The Mustangs trailed 36-33 going to the fourth quarter and Westmont scored the first five points of the stanza to go up by eight.
A
Sabrina Thompson three-pointer with 6:43 left to play pulled the Mustangs within 43-40.
However, the Warriors answered with five straight points and TMU got no closer than six (48-42) the rest of the way.
Much earlier, the Warriors scored the last three points of the first quarter on an Iyree Jarrett three-pointer for an 11-8 lead and then tallied the first nine points of the second stanza to go up by 12.
Neuman responded with six straight points and when Thompson scored on a layup with 4:18 to go before halftime, the Mustangs had drawn within 20-16.
The Warriors quickly extended the lead to as many as nine points and led 25-18 at intermission.
The Mustangs played their best ball of the evening in a 2:48 window of the third quarter when they used a 9-2 burst to slice an eight-point deficit to one (30-29).
The Mustangs (26-2, 14-2 GSAC) close out their 2019-20 home slate next Thursday evening when they host Life Pacific University in a 5:30 p.m. start in The MacArthur Center.
"They'll bounce back," Waldeck said of his team. "They'll bounce back fine."
