Only on rare occasions does Rebekah Throns not significantly impact a game.
The senior forward is a tenacious rebounder, an energetic defender and a willing passer. She's more than capable of knocking down an open shot.
Friday's performance, however, had a different feel.
Throns sensed her team needed an offensive spark, and she took it upon herself to take over the Mustangs' Golden State Athletic Conference opener at OUAZ.
Her signature hustle and teamwork remained intact; but Throns looked more aggressively to score, tossing in a career-high 21 points in a come-from-behind 67-60 win.
Though it came in Surprise, Ariz., Throns' performance shouldn't come as a shock to Mustang fans. The Perth, Australia, product is averaging a career-best 10.4 points per game.
Friday, she scored 13 points after halftime as the Mustangs (3-2) stormed back from a nine-point deficit at the break.
"She was amazing tonight," said TMU head coach Dan Waldeck. "She made key plays with the ball and with her hustle."
Throns wasn't the only one. In fact, she believes Jessica Soares' physical play in the paint "won us the game."
Soares finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
"She did a huge job inside, crashing the boards and going up strong with put-backs," Throns said.
Better three-point shooting didn't hurt either. TMU went 0-for-10 in the first half from three-point range. OUAZ made 8-of-14 from that distance, a big reason the Spirit led 32-23 at the break.
Then Master's found a rhythm.
The Mustangs made 5-of-12 three-point tries the rest of the way, two coming courtesy of Throns.
Anika Neuman scored nine of her 11 points over the game's final 20 minutes, and Tristen Coltom scored all eight of her points during that span.
Road wins in conference play never come easy — and this was no exception. Waldeck was proud of the way his team stayed the course.
"The girls have stayed together through extreme adversity," he said, "and they just kept believing in our system and each other."
What that looked like practically was improved defensive rebounding and better attention to OUAZ shooters. It also helped that TMU began to knock down shots.
"When shots started falling, we began to look like a tough Mustang team," Waldeck said.
Throns said her career night on offense had nothing to do with wanting to "fill the stat sheet."
"The team needed a scorer tonight to win and I had to be that," she said. "I had a lot of encouragement from the bench and my teammates to be able to do that."
The Mustangs will play at OUAZ again on Saturday. Tip-off is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. PST. OUAZ will provide live video and stats. There is a charge of $7.95 for the video.
