With a smothering defense and a pouring of 3-pointers, The Master's men's basketball team defeated NCAA DII Azusa Pacific 70-60 in an exhibition game Saturday night in The MacArthur Center before a near-capacity crowd.
The Mustangs' defense held the Cougars to 17 of 55 (30.9%) shooting from the field and 9 of 28 (32%) from behind the arc.
"I'm excited because everything we are doing in practice is translating into the game," said TMU Head Coach Kelvin Starr. "That's always good because the belief starts to come. There's obviously a lot of work to go still, but for being this early in the year the commitment to the defensive end is pretty good."
TMU, on the other hand, hit 26 of 58 (45%) from the field and drained 10 of 19 3-pointers in just the first half. The team finished with 12 long-range bombs in the game.
APU was able to go up early with a layup 5:42 into the game to make it 10-7. But that's when the defense kicked in for the Mustangs as the Cougars did not score a field goal for the next 6:23 of the game while the TMU offense poured in three 3-pointers in a row to go up 23-13.
The Master's then hit four more 3s, leading by as much as 13, before closing out the half with another 3-pointer to go up 41-34.
And while the Mustangs didn't match the scoring of the first half, the second half proved even better defensively. TMU only allowed the Cougars to score 26 in the final 20 minutes and opening up a 19-point lead at one time to eventually get the 10-point win.
Kaleb Lowery led the team with 17 points and pulled down 18 rebounds. Both
Kendall Moore and
Tiago Soares had nine each with
Quincy Phillips coming off the bench to add eight.
Fans love the scoring but coaches love the defense, and that is a big part of the culture with Coach Starr and his staff at The Master's.
"I think it's always a work in progress, but I do think this group has a chance to be one that's completely bought in," Coach Starr said. "Not that our team last year wasn't. It was really good. But this team has to be connected and playing good team defense. There's still a little taste there from last year when we lost by one point to the eventual national champion [Freed-Hardeman], and you realize it's one possession, it's one play, and these guys have had it preached to them that every detail matters. So just having that mindset every time you play."
The Master's will get their best test yet when they go on the road next week to Oklahoma City to play Missouri Baptist and Langston (OK), the team ranked No. 1 on the NAIA Pre-Season Basketball Poll.
"Missouri Baptist is very similar to Azusa Pacific," Starr said. "Big bodies, good shooters, a couple of good guards... They are going to be a very similar match-up. And Langston is like a Division I team. They've got athletes across the board and transfers... I'm excited for the opportunity."
