For the second game in a row, The Master's University's women's basketball team came out strong in the first quarter, only this time they stayed strong throughout as they defeated the University of Antelope Valley 76-65 Thursday night at The MacArthur Center.
The Lady Mustangs shot 28-of-53 (53%) from the field while the defense held the Pioneers to just 32% to improve to 9-2 on the season.
The difference truly came in that first quarter. After UAV jumped out to an 8-4 lead, TMU went on a 17-0 run to go up 21-8 with 2:18 to play in the quarter. After giving up a basket to break the run, layups by
Ella Brubaker and
Marin Lenz closed out the first 10 minutes with The Master's up 25-11.
"This game started to feel similar to our last performance the further into it we got," said Head Coach Lisa Zamroz. "We went down 8-4 in the first and then responded in a big way to make our run to finish the last seven minutes of the quarter. Lexi (Hernandez) and Ella led the charge offensively. They've responded really well to the team focus of getting to the line and challenging one-on-one matchups."
TMU would keep that double-digit lead, pushing the difference to as much as 23, before the Pioneers clawed their way back to within nine with 43 seconds to play in the game. That's when Lenz hit a pair of free throws to close out the scoring and give The Master's the 11-point win.
"We were able to close the game, but UAV gave a tough final push late in the fourth," said Zamroz. "We let them speed us up and get sloppy with the ball. After a long week of finals I'm happy with our ability to stay competitive and close this one out."
Brubaker, who leads the conference in scoring and ranks fourth in the nation, led the scoring with 26 points. Lenz finished with 18 and
Lexi Hernandez finished with 11 points and a team-high eight rebounds. Both Lenz and
Jayla Julmist pulled down seven rebounds each as The Master's once again came out on top of the rebounding game 47-39.
"Marin had a great game," Zamroz said. "She played both sides of the ball with equal intensity. When she plays aggressively we are a different caliber team."
The Lady Mustangs will be back in action Saturday at The MacArthur center as they host the Bethesda Flames. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m.
