Quincy Phillips scored 30 points to lead The Master's men's basketball team to a 106-89 exhibition win over the Nelson (AZ) Warriors Wednesday night in The MacArthur Center.
The Mustangs hit 38 of 70 (54%) from the field including 12 of 30 from 3-point range. TMU was also very efficient from the free throw line, hitting 18 of 21.
For their part the Warriors shot well from the field as well, hitting 31 of 67 (46%) and 8 of 22 (36%) from long range. Nelson also won the rebounding battle, pulling down 42 compared to Master's 39, with 19 of those 42 being offensive boards. But the Warriors could only muster 18 second chance points on those 19 offensive rebounds.
It simply came down to The Master's taking and making more shots than the Warriors.
"That's a Nelson team that is very good offensively," said TMU Head Coach Kelvin Starr. "They've got a lot of firepower. I was a little disappointed in our defensive effort overall, but we did good enough. We still have a long way to go. We are still figuring stuff out, but I'm always happy to get a win, regardless of if it's an exhibition or whatever."
Nelson jumped out to an 11-8 lead 3:44 into the game. But Master's went on a 9-0 run to take the lead for good. The Warriors got to within one at 24-23 with 10:03 to play in the half on their own 7-0 run, but the Mustangs pulled away in the final 10 minutes of the frame grabbing as much as an 11-point lead before settling on a 46-39 advantage going into the break.
Phillips hit 8 of 9 first half shots, including a pair of 3s, to score 18 at the half.
Again Nelson clawed back to get to within one early in the second half, and again TMU pulled away going up but as much as 25 with 3:02 to play, before getting the 17-point win.
Skyler Scull came off the bench to net 17 points, with
Jazen Guillory adding 15 and
Parker Tuttle getting 13.
Avery Jackson and
Nate Boakye each led the team with six rebounds, with Boakye dishing seven assists.
"This was a good process game for us," Coach Starr said. "We just need to get back to practice. Next week we've got two nationally ranked teams we've got to play (in a tournament) down at Hope International. So we're going to be tested."
The HIU Thanksgiving Tournament will get underway Monday in Fullerton, Calif. when The Master's will face No. 19 Oregon Tech at 3 p.m. Then on Tuesday the Mustangs will face the Raiders of Southern Oregon, also a 3 p.m. start in Darling Pavilion.
