Game Recap By Mason Nesbitt, TMU Sports Information Director

For any fan inside The MacArthur Center on Saturday night, catching Hansel Atencia‘s alley-oop pass would have necessitated a ladder suitable for stapling Christmas lights to a one-story duplex.

For Michael Taylor, it was a matter of jumping, grabbing and slamming. In the process, the 6-foot-6 sophomore shattered what remained of an imaginary piece of glass hovering over the cylinder.

The Master’s University men’s basketball team played with energy in a comfortable win over Westcliff University on Saturday at TMU, but the Mustangs’ shots didn’t begin to fall in large quantities until after the break.

Taylor scored a career-high 18 points off the bench and the No. 2-ranked Mustangs pumped the accelerator in the second half of a 94-46 win.

Taylor’s powerful slam at the 8:24 mark was part of a second half when the Mustangs shot 53 percent from the floor and made 10-of-21 shots from behind the arc.

Sophomore Nick Swenning made three of the four triples he attempted, scoring a career-high 10 points in four minutes as the game wound down.

Tim Soares (21 points), Hansel Atencia (13), Darryl McDowell-White (12) and Jordan Starr (10) joined Swenning and Taylor in double figures.

It all worked to distance the Mustangs (9-2) from a first half when they shot just 37 percent from the floor and missed 15 of 19 shots from deep. Fortunately, TMU held the Warriors to 18 percent shooting and parlayed nine turnovers into 13 points.

TMU led 41-24 at half before racking up 53 points over the final 20 minutes.

“I said, ‘Let’s pick it (back) up defensively in the second half and have some fun and get back to who we are,'” said coach Kelvin Starr.

Atencia, who matched a season-high with nine assists, said of the second frame: “The energy just went up. Coach called a time out, and he said we were playing good but not good enough. We just needed to pick up the energy. We got a couple steals, dunks. It was defense that started it.”

The Mustangs played manic defense in the game’s opening minutes, flying into passing lanes and taking up residence inside their guests’ personal space.

TMU rushed out to an 18-2 lead, the final two points of the spurt coming on a highlight worthy play sparked by defense.

McDowell-White, who made 4-of-9 three-point shots on the night, swatted a Westcliff layup off the backboard. At the other end, he drove and kicked to Jordan Starr for an open three-point shot that found the bottom of the net.

The Mustangs outscored Westcliff 18-6 in the paint in the first half, and Taylor was a big reason.

The burly sophomore made 8-of-9 shots on the night and pulled down nine rebounds, four of them offensive.

Soares made 6-of-8 shots and pulled down 11 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season.

“It’s tough to keep two big bodies off the glass,” said Soares, adding that TMU had practiced with special intensity this week after being upset on the road by San Diego Christian last Saturday.

“I think it was a good wake-up call for us,” he said of the 82-80 loss. “It made us realize we’re not invincible.”

Even so, the Mustangs defense was mostly impenetrable on this night.

“I’m really excited about our defensive effort,” said Kelvin Starr. “We sustained it the whole game. Sometimes you get loose there, too. I’m excited to go to the break this way.”

Here’s the box score.

Because TMU’s scheduled home game against the University of Lethbridge (Canada) was canceled next week, the Mustangs will now have 10 days off, returning the day after Christmas before hosting the Jersey Mike’s Holiday Classic on Dec. 28 and 29.