The NAIA second-ranked Sea Lions survived a scare from a very game The Master's squad Saturday night, coming from behind for a 65-61 GSAC victory. PLNU runs its win streak to 12 straight and improves to 18-1 overall, 9-1 against conference foes.
A battle from start to finish, the game came down to the final minutes. The home team Mustangs took a two-point lead with less than a two minutes to go but a layup from Colleen Planeta evened the score at 57-all and a trey from Danielle Arriola put the Sea Lions up for good.
TMC was forced to foul at that point and PLNU proved steady at the stripe, thanks to four consecutive makes by Amanda Franz. The Sea Lions went on to win by four and remain at the top of the GSAC standings.
The opening half saw PLNU open up an eight-point advantage but the Mustangs rallied to close the gap to just two points at the break, 25-23. The Sea Lions went ahead by six early into the second stanza but a three-pointer by Anne Gillespie and a Jenna Reed layup pulled TMC to just one.
Both teams fought for the rest of the game, PLNU went up by as much as five but would be tracked down by the Mustangs who had three one-point lead until Brittany Henderson's three was followed by a layup by Morgan Schwegler that gave TMC a 57-55 lead with 1:52 on the clock.
PLNU outshot the Mustangs 46 to 39 percent but were outrebounded by TMC 44-28. The Mustangs made six from beyond the arc to five from the Sea Lions.
Franz paced PLNU with 16 points followed by 15 from Planeta. The latter also pulled in a team-high seven rebounds and had three blocks. Arriola added 12 points to the win with both Liah Ector and Brianna Colon adding 10 points.
"It was a tough game,” said Colon. “The Master's is a very good team. We kept our composure when the game was tight and hung in there together. Every game we grow closer as a team and learn how to work together. We are very excited for the rest of the year, there are a lot of tough games ahead but we could go all the way."
TMC (10-7, 5-4) was led by Henderson's 13 points. Schwegler a and Gillespie scored 12 and 11 points, respectively.
PLNU returns home on Thursday and will host Biola for a 5:30 pm tilt. The Eagles are the only team to beat the Sea Lions this year.
