The Master’s College women’s basketball team suffered a 99-89 loss to the first-ranked Vanguard Lions Tuesday night at Bross Court.

With the loss – the second in a week – the ninth-ranked Lady Mustangs’ 2013-14 record now sits at 17-5, and 5-2 in GSAC play.

“We didn’t play defense at all tonight,” commented Lady Mustang head coach Dan Waldeck. “We played hard, but weren’t able to get stops and keep them off the glass the way we needed to. Tons of credit to Vanguard who played extremely well and held off our runs with great shot and play making.”

With a 7-6 lead at the 14:40 mark in the first half, the Lady Mustangs were forced to play catch up for the rest of the evening shortly after as Vanguard maintained a solid lead until the very end.

At the half, the Lady Mustangs trailed the Lions 48-36.  Leading the squad’s efforts was Jacquelyn Marshall (San Clemente, CA) who scored 11 points and brought down 5 rebounds in the 15 minutes of action she experienced. Zoe Scott (Spokane, WA), who played 14 minutes in the first half, followed by scoring 8 points at the break. The Lady Mustangs went 12-29 from the field, 5-13 behind the arc, and a spotless 7-7 on free throws.

The second half mirrored the first as Vanguard showed why they were ranked first in the NAIA by controlling the court in all aspects.  Looking for a late-game upset, Shannon Kingery (West Hills, CA) managed to cut Vanguard’s lead to 95-87 with 24 seconds left on the clock before the Lions eked out their 99-89 victory just a few ticks later.

Both Marshall and Scott led TMC in scoring with 21 points each. Marshall pulled down 12 rebounds while Scott grabbed 5. Overall, TMC went 34-73 from the field, 12-29 behind the arc, and 9-10 from the charity stripe.

“I’m very proud of our resolve and fight to comeback and make it a game late in the second half. I love the character of my team,” further assessed Waldeck. “I need to do a better job of preparing my team than I did tonight. Obviously, our game plan didn’t put us in position to win. We’ll make the adjustments for the second half of our conference schedule and play much better moving forward.”

On Saturday, the Lady Mustangs will start the second half of their conference schedule with a trip to the Grand Canyon State to take on Arizona Christian. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m.