MUSTANGS MAKE IT 16 STRAIGHT
College basketball: Mustangs rout La Sierra for 16th victory in a row
The Master’s College women’s basketball has seen both ends of the competitive spectrum as it readies for two crucial conference games in the next five days.
The NAIA No. 12 ranked Mustangs played to a tight win on Saturday, and they strolled to a 102-37 non-conference rout of La Sierra University on Thursday at TMC for their 16th straight win.
TMC — the Golden State Athletic Conference’s first place team by 1 1/2 games — faces No. 8 Vanguard University on Saturday and No. 2 Westmont College on Tuesday.
Those teams are tied for second place.
“We worked really hard this week at us getting better,” said TMC head coach Dan Waldeck. “Our week has not been focused on anything but our own improvement. It’s going to be a tough game on Saturday. Vanguard is playing extremely well. But I think we’re making big strides.”
Bianca Cubello and Jamilee Iddings each scored 17 points to lead the Mustangs (18-2), whose game against Vanguard is the NAIA’s Division I women’s basketball game of the week. It will
be broadcast online on the NAIA Network at 5:30 p.m.
TMC immediately erased any idea that La Sierra (5-15)
might provide a trap game, though.
The Mustangs outscored the Golden Eagles 26-4 in
the first quarter and nearly scored as many points in the
second frame (33) as their visitors did the entire game.
All 10 TMC players in uniform scored before halftime, winning the points-in-the-paint battle 26-2 and points off turnovers 17-0 before the break.
Five Mustangs finished in double figures. Ashley Bartow scored 13 points, Shannon Kingery scored 11 and Kelly Burns posted a doubledouble, with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
“We’re just trying to get better,” Burns said. “We’re just trying to be the best team we can be on January 28th. That’s kind of our mind-set going into every game.”
Burns added that the 16game streak has been about finding ways to win, whether that means reaching 100 points for the first time since November 2013 or surviving with a 68-61 win last Saturday over Menlo College.
“They haven’t been pretty games necessarily,” Burns said. “Each game we bring the intensity and the urgency and we find a way to win. We never give up.”
TMC’s second-leading scorer, guard Megan Lindsley, didn’t play Thursday. But Waldeck said it was a matter of rest and not injury.