Celebrating a return home to the friendly confines of Bross Gym after nearly three weeks on the road, The Master’s College men’s basketball team scored the first 17 points of the game Tuesday evening and ran away from winless Cal Tech 91-56.

The triumph kept the Mustangs undefeated at home (5-0) and improved them to 7-3 overall.

The game-opening assault started quickly when Lance Reeves (Visalia, CA), starting in place of Leif Karlberg, drained a three-pointer with 18:34 left in the opening half.  Over the next 7:30, the Mustangs would tally 15 more unanswered points, keeping the Beavers off the scoreboard for the initial 9:18 of play.  Reeves was joined from long range by Derrick Fain (Dallas, TX) and Logan Quinn (Little Rock, AR), whose consecutive three-balls ballooned the margin to 12-0.  Fain added another basket and Chris Patureau capped off the run with a dunk at the 11:04 mark.

The Beavers finally got on the scoreboard with 10:42 left in the half when local product Michael Edwards drilled a three-pointer.  But, all that did was momentarily delay the inevitable as the Mustangs, behind Fain and Devin Dyer (Temecula, CA), took off again, extending the lead to a half-high 21 points.  Another Patureau dunk at the 7:04 mark handed the Mustangs a 28-7 lead, the largest advantage they enjoyed over the first 20 minutes.  They took a 40-21 lead into the locker room.

Dyer, who scored the club’s last four points of the half, led the way with 12 points while Fain added nine more as the Mustangs shot 45% (14-31) from the field in the opening period.  On the other end, a stout Mustang defense that forced 10 turnovers, held Cal Tech to 25% accuracy.

Parelleling the first stanza, the Mustangs used another Reeves’ trey to open the second half in prolific fashion, outscoring the Beavers 16-4 to take a 56-25 lead with 16:03 left to play.  During the skein, Reeves got help from Fain, who connected on another three-pointer, Loeb’s consecutive layups, four straight points from Patureau, and Dyer who capped things off with a layup.

The Mustangs never led by less than 27 points the rest of the way and enjoyed their largest lead (35 points) of the evening four times, including the margin at the final buzzer.  The club shot a superb 54% from the field in the second half and ended the evening at 50% (35-70) marksmanship.

Fain, who hit three of his team-high four three-pointers in the second half, tossed in a game-high 22 points, leading five Mustangs in double figures.  Dyer finished with 17 points, Patureau had 12 to go along with a game-best 10 rebounds, redshirt freshman Britton Doerbecker made a nice debut with 11 points, and Austin Loeb (Cypress, CA) added 10 more.

The Mustangs get one day off before heading back into action, hosting La Sierra on Thursday at 7 p.m.