It’s the goal of every basketball team to cut down the nets.

It means they won a championship.

And The Master’s University men’s basketball team did just that Saturday afternoon after defeating the Menlo Oaks 80-73 in The MacArthur Center.

“Winning a regular season GSAC championship is a grind,” said head coach Kelvin Starr. “(I am) super proud of our guys for showing such grit and buying into our program’s culture.”

In the first half, Menlo out-rebounded the Mustangs 25-16, including 10 offensive rebounds, yet the game was tied at 35-35 at the break. Menlo used those offensive rebounds to score 22 second chance points in the game, compared to the Mustangs’ six.

“Menlo was really tough today,” Starr said. “They gave us everything we could handle. Coach Rooney had his guys prepared and hungry.”

But the second half belonged to The Master’s, hitting 19 of 23 free throws in the final 20 minutes, 10 more than the Oaks, to get the seven-point win.

Five Mustangs scored in double figures, led by Ty Harper with 18, Jordan Caruso with 15, 14 each for Kaleb Lowery and Kamrin Oriol, and Deaken Stangl added 11. Lowery pulled down a team-high 13 rebounds for his tenth double-double of the season.

“It has really been a collective effort,” Coach Starr said. “We preach selflessness daily. We want to model Christ in that way when we play. The guys have done a great job fighting self and selling out to what is best for the team.”

The Mustangs have now had eight straight 20-win seasons.

“That has a ton to do with the support from the top,” Starr said. “Since I arrived at Master’s University, John MacArthur  has been our biggest supporter. So glad he gets to enjoy this one.”

The Master’s will share the conference title with the Arizona Christian Firestorm. Both team’s will go into next week’s GSAC Championship Tournament in Fullerton, Calif. as the top two seeds, meaning they both get a bye directly to the semifinals.

“Now we move onto the post season,” Starr added. “We have to stay humble and get back to work.”