Despite leading by as much as 12 points in the second half, The Master's men's basketball team had to step up their defense to hold off the Loyola University of New Orleans Wolf Pack 66-63 Thursday night in The MacArthur Center.
A 3-point shot with three seconds to play by Loyola's Braelee Albert clanked off the rim, and the ensuing scramble for the ball took the final seconds off the clock to preserve the win for the Mustangs (3-1).
"I am very happy with the defensive end," said TMU Head Coach Kelvin Starr. "To hold a team to 63 should always be good enough to win games. But we shot poorly and we didn't finish when we went inside. We've just got to get better at executing offensively and producing when we get the ball to the right spots."
TMU jumped out to a 10-2 lead to start the game on the back of a trio of 3-pointers. But that's when the defenses of both teams really started to flex itself.
The Master's went cold, not scoring over a 7:39 stretch of time, while the Wolf Pack could only muster five points during the same time.
The Master's shot 10 of 30 (33%) in the first half, but held Loyola to just 8 of 33 (24%) to go into the locker room with a 29-23 lead.
The second half had both teams turning up the heat offensively, with the Wolf Pack hitting 17 of 30 (57%) from the field and TMU also improving with 13 of 29 (45%).
The Mustangs grabbed their largest lead of the night, 12 points, with 15:29 remaining in the game. But Loyola chipped away and fought, making multiple substitutions throughout to get to within two at the 4:42 mark.
But a pair of layups by
Jazen Guillory and a jumper from
Kendall Moore pushed The Master's lead back to seven with 2:07 to play.
The Wolf Pack cut into the lead again, getting to within one at 66-65 with 14 seconds to play. But two clutch free throws by Deon Earley with nine seconds to play, forced Loyola to shoot a three to tie it, but ran out of time.
"Deon stepped up big time at the end making those free throws," Coach Starr said. "[Loyola] was a very physical team and [Loyola Coach Donald Reyes]Â did a really good job. He is a class act."
Moore finished with a game-high 22 points, followed by
Kaleb Lowery getting 16 and pulling down 14 rebounds and Guillory adding 14 points of his own.
"We're going to be thankful that we got the win, and now we've got to turnaround and play tomorrow," Coach Starr said.
The Master's will host The MacArthur Trust Classic beginning Friday at 5 p.m. when Arizona Christian will play UC Merced. TMU will follow that game at 7 p.m. when they take on the Corban (OR) Warriors. All four of those teams will be back in action in The MacArthur Center on Saturday, beginning with the Firestorm playing the Warriors at 2 p.m. with the Mustangs facing the Bobcats at 4 p.m.
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