The Master's men's basketball team opened up the Cactus Classic with a 91-64 win over Montana Western Saturday in Glendale, Ariz.
The win also marked Head Coach Kelvin Starr's 200th win at The Master's. Earlier this season, in the win over No. 2 College of Idaho, Coach Starr picked up his 300th win as a college head coach.
The Mustangs (10-2) shot nearly 50% (35 of 71) from the field and held the Bulldogs to under 32% in the bounce-back win after a tough road loss to the UC Merced Bobcats on Dec. 5.
TMU dropped two places to No. 9 in this week's NAIA Top 25 poll after the loss to UC Merced.
The Master's opened up a 15-point lead at the half (41-26) behind All-American
Kaleb Lowery's 18 points in the first 20 minutes. The 2-time GSAC Player of the Year made 7 of 9 shots in the first half and added six rebounds going into the break.
The Mustangs continued the pressure on both ends of the floor in the second half pouring in 50 while allowing 38 from Montana Western to come away with the 27-point win.
Lowery led all scorers with 27 points while pulling down eight rebounds.
Jaren Nafarrete, in just 20 minutes on the floor, hit five 3-pointers on his way to posting 21, with
Miles Mendes adding 11 points on a perfect 5 for 5 from the floor.
"Really solid defensive effort," said TMU Head Coach Kelvin Starr. "It was fun to see Jaren get it going. It was a great team effort tonight."
Ther Master's will next play on Monday in the Cactus Classic against Montana State University-Northern. TMU will finish off the Cactus Classic on Tuesday when they take on No. 6 Montana Tech. Both games are currently scheduled to start at 1 p.m. PT.
