The Master's may have lost their conference opener, but they didn't go down without a fight.
The Mustangs, playing without starters Jordan Caruso and Victor Ohia Obioha due to injury, trailed by as much as 14 but battled back late to tie the game 83-83 at the end of regulation. But the Ottawa (AZ) Spirit came out firing in the extra five minutes and pulled away for a 101-94 win over The Master's.
And it was the three that did in the Mustangs.
The Spirit hit 17-of-37 3-point shots, including two in the first minute of overtime to defeat The Master's (4-2, 0-1). The Spirit's Alex Villi hit 10-of-17 from long range, finishing with a career-high 36 points.
"I liked our fight especially being short handed," said Head Coach Kelvin Starr. "These conference games quite often come down to one possession, one shot or one free throw as was the case tonight."
TMU trailed by 10 points in the second half. Yet every time the Mustangs dropped it to within six points, or even four points, the Spirit would answer and drive up the margin. But that changed inside of five minutes to play in the game when first a layup by Kaleb Lowery was followed by a put-back by Caden Starr, and the Spirit lead was one at 75-74. An OUAZ turnover was followed by a foul against Kaleb Lowery with 3:05 to play. The two-time All-GSAC performer dropped both free throws to give the Mustangs their first lead since the 16:31 mark in the first half.
The Master's was able to go up by three with 1:03 to play, but the Spirit scored five quick points sandwiched around a big block by their All-American Josiah De'la Cerda, to put OUAZ up 83-81. But Kaleb Lowery hit two free throws with 24 seconds to play to tie it at 83-83 and send the game to overtime.
And all it took was 1:07 into OT for Alex Villi to hit a pair of 3-pointers to break it open again for the Spirit and lift them to the win.
In addition to the three's made by OUAZ, it may have been the offensive rebounding the Spirit showed off as they pulled down 21 of their 44 rebounds off the offensive glass.
"One stat that hurt us was giving up (those) offensive rebounds," Starr said. "We have to do a better job of that. We have to get healthy and we have to get better."
Kamron Oriol came off the bench to lead The Master's in scoring with a career-high 24, Kaleb Lowery finished with 20 and a team-high 13 rebounds, Christian Sweazie added 20 and Caden Starr finished with 17. The Mustangs shot 45% from the field, 45% from 3-point range, and 79% from the line.
The task gets very difficult Saturday when the Arizona Christian Firestorm, ranked No. 1 in the most recent NAIA Top 25 Poll, come to The MacArthur Center to play The Master's. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m.
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