The Master's men's basketball team jumped out to a 26-point lead in the first half and then held off a late charge to defeat the Justice College Lions 90-77 Friday night in The MacArthur Center.
The Mustangs (7-2) shot better than 47% from the floor and hit 20 of 24 from the free throw line in the win. But the Lions shot nearly 58% in the second half mounting a charge, but just could not overcome the double-digit deficit.
"They didn't quit for one second," TMU Head Coach Kelvin Starr said of the Lions. "It's a lesson to us to be locked in for 40 minutes."
Locked in is exactly what TMU was for the first 12:35 of the game as the team opened up a 37-11 lead after three 3-pointers in row created the 26-point difference.
Justice proved to be relentless despite the difference and worked a tenacious defense that generated a slashing offense. Over the next 26 minutes of the game, the Lions out-scored the Mustangs 66-50 to get to within 10.
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"I thought we were a lot better defensively in the first half and in the second half we gave up we too many straight line drives," Coach Starr said.
That defense held the Lions to 10 of 31 from the field in the first half before Justice surged in the second half with 19 of 33 shooting.
Ty Harper led The Master's with 23 points on 8 of 12 shooting, with
Kamrin Oriol pouring in 18 and
Kaleb Lowery 15. Lowery also led the team with eight rebounds while
Caden Starr added seven assists.
These same two teams will be back at it Saturday for a 5 p.m. tip-off in The MacArthur Center.
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