A career-night from
Ella Brubaker was not enough for The Master's University women's basketball team, which lost on the road to San Diego Christian on Friday evening, 62-71, ending the Mustangs' hopes of automatically qualifying for the NAIA National Tournament.
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"The loss is an extreme disappointment," Master's head coach
Dan Waldeck said. "This season has been riddled with hurdles that we haven't quite overcome, but we have one more opportunity to finish well. It would have been great to play beyond this weekend, but unfortunately we didn't perform at a high-enough level to earn that chance."
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TMU (6-5, 4-3 GSAC) entered this weekend's back-to-back slate with San Diego Christian (7-5, 4-3) needing to win both games to force a one-game playoff with William Jessup (10-8, 6-2) to see who would represent the Golden State Athletic Conference East at the NAIA National Championships. With the Mustangs' loss, the automatic berth goes to the Warriors.
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Brubaker scored a career-high 26 points, making 10 of the team's 22 field goals and every two-point shot she took.
Rebekah Throns recorded her third double-double of the season (12 points, 12 rebounds) in the loss.
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"Ella and Rebekah had great performances tonight, but we didn't have enough balanced production to get the win," Waldeck said. "Every teammate was engaged, so it's a bummer to fall short in a must-win game."
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The Mustangs and the Hawks each scored 16 points in the first quarter and 17 in the second to go into halftime tied-up, 33-33. A late third-quarter run gave San Diego Christian a six-point lead going into the fourth. TMU fought back to within two with 1:36 left to play, but the Hawks scored the final seven points of the game to win by nine.
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Master's and San Diego Christian will re-convene on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. in the regular-season finale for both teams.
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"These girls have continued to play hard and for each other, so for that I'm proud of them," Waldeck said. "We'll lace them up one more time tomorrow to finish strong."
