A dominant fourth quarter sent The Master's women's basketball team to the winner's column as they defeated the Life Pacific Warriors 67-51 Saturday in San Dimas, Calif.
The Lady Mustangs (18-5, 5-4) held onto a four-point lead going into the final quarter, but an 18-0 run to start the frame launched TMU to the win.
The Master's kept LPU off the scoreboard for the first 7:24 of that fourth quarter. A free throw with 2:36 to play was the Warrior's first point of the period.
"Life plays with so much urgency for all four quarters," said Head Coach Lisa Zamroz. "We let them speed us up in moments to rush shots and then run in transition for open threes. I liked our response out of the half to establish the pace and execute offensively."
The Lady Mustangs opened the game slowly, hitting 6 of 17 (35%) in the first quarter, but held a 16-13 advantage. The team shot 7 of 14 in the second quarter while holding the Warriors to 10 of 29 (34%) for the half to go into the locker room with a 33-25 advantage.
After TMU scored the first six points of the period to go up by 14, Life Pacific found a groove to go on a 20-10 run to draw to within four at the end of three.
But the Lady Mustangs hit their shots on that 18-0 run and defended the boards, getting 15 rebounds in the final 10 minutes (eight by Maddie Cooke alone), to get the 16-point win.
Cooke finished with a double-double, getting a career-high 20 points and pulling down 13 rebounds to go with three blocks.
Marin Lenz added 14 and Belle Hernendez scored 10.
"Maddie was the best player on the floor tonight," Zamroz said. "She was in the mix on every play on both sides of the ball. We finished the game playing our best defense of the night which is encouraging heading into another tough week of GSAC play."
As a team, TMU shot 41% from the field and only managed 3 of 18 from 3-point range. They out-rebounded the Warriors 47-35 and had a 34-14 difference in points in the paint.
The Master's will have four of their final five games at home in The MacArthur Center, starting with Thursday's game against Arizona Christian. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
