Still struggling with illness and injury, The Master's men's basketball team lost their second consecutive conference game, this time to the No. 1 Arizona Christian Firestorm, 87-59 Saturday in The MacArthur Center.
The Mustangs (4-3, 0-2) had trouble finding their shot all game, shooting 36% from the field, while ACU poured in nearly 51%, including 18-of-31 in the second half to pull away by as much as 32.
"We've got to get better," said Head Coach Kelvin Starr. "Even short-handed that shouldn't have happened. Coaches and players need to take a hard look inside and commit to getting better."
Despite being down 15 at the half, the Mustangs came out of the locker room with a plan and executed it perfectly. TMU cut the lead down to nine in the first 1:24 of the second half, but the Firestorm took control once again with seven straight points to go up by 16.
It was the closest the Mustangs would ever get to getting back into the game.
"I felt like we were getting pushed out of our offense too easy," Starr said. "We wanted to make certain we were stronger with the ball. I felt we did a good job of that at the start of the second half. But you've got to score at a higher clip."
Kaleb Lowery finished with his sixth double-double in the first seven games, scoring 12 points to go with his 11 rebounds before fouling out of the game. Christian Sweazie led the team with 14 points and Miles Mendes finished with nine going 3-for-3 from 3-point range.
The Master's will be on the road Tuesday when they play Pomona-Pitzer in a non-conference game in Claremont, Calif. Tip-off is 5 p.m.
