Few things are sweeter in sports than beating your rival. The Master’s College men’s basketball team did just that Tuesday night by clipping Biola 71-69 in front of a lively crowd at Bross Court.

The victory improves the Mustangs’ (10-16) conference record to 5-10, taking the sixth-place spot in the conference away from Biola (16-13, 4-11 GSAC).

Tuesday was the second consecutive game that TMC had four scorers in double digits. Russell Byrd (Santa Clarita, CA) led all scorers with 23 points, and pulled down 11 rebounds. It was his second straight game with a double-double. Chris Patureau (Houston, TX) was close behind with 19 points, while Harrison White (Winston-Salem, NC) and Reid Shackelford (Murrieta, CA) netted 12 each.

Biola won the tip-off and scored first on a Pierre Zook layup. Shackelford replied with a layup of his own before Biola took a 4-2 lead with 18:05 left on the clock. It was the last lead the Eagles would have in the game.

Shackelford started hot from behind the arc, quickly draining two three-pointers to open up an 8-0 run by the Mustangs.

A layup by White gave TMC a 21-9 advantage with 10:13 left in the first stanza for the largest lead of the night. TMC hindered Biola from finishing at the rim and forced them to shoot from outside the paint.

However, the Eagles weren’t going to go away and turned a 29-19 deficit at the 3:14 mark into a 29-27 ball game with 34 seconds left in the half.

The Mustangs created a little separation with consecutive layups by Patureau, giving them a 33-27 edge at the break. TMC shot 52% from the field in the first half, while Patureau had 15 points.

In the second half, Byrd came alive, scoring 21 of his points.

TMC stretched the lead to 42-33 with 15:52 left in the game but saw the advantage shrink to 43-40 two minutes later.

The Mustangs refused to give up the lead, even though they led by only one point on three separate occasions down the stretch.

TMC owned a 63-56 lead with 1:24 left, but two Pierre Zook three-pointers by the Eagle point guard made it 63-62.

The game turned into a free throw competition between Byrd and Zook. Byrd shot 92% (12-13) from the line for the game and was 100% (6-6) in the last minute. His sixth free throw gave the Mustangs a 69-64 lead with 22 seconds left.

Another Biola three-pointer gave the Eagles life and shrunk the Mustang lead to 70-69.

Evan Jenkins (Los Angeles, CA) was fouled and made his first free throw before the other bounced off the rim.

Up 71-69 with five seconds left, the Mustangs faced the Eagles one last time. Biola put the ball in the hands of hot-handed Zook on the final possession. The Mustangs came up with some clutch defense preventing Zook from getting a shot off before the buzzer sounded.

The Mustangs close out the regular season at Bross Court on Saturday, February 28th against No. 4 Hope International. Tip-off is slated for 7:30 pm.