There was a streak on the line Saturday afternoon inside Haynes-Prim Pavilion in Atherton. It was in danger as the clock wound down, and it had nothing to do with TMU’s program-record winning streak.

With one minute left, Mustang Lawrence Russell drove the lane and dished to Travis Yenor, who skied toward the hoop and laid it in, through contact.

Yenor’s ensuing free throw rattled around the rim … and took a friendly dive.

The sophomore forward made every shot he took, field goal or otherwise, for 16 big points in a gutsy 95-84 win over Menlo College.

The No. 2 Mustangs are 23-1, having won 22 in a row and 41 of their last 44 dating back to last season.

Russell produced a loud bounce-back effort. TMU’s leading scorer was relatively quiet as far as points in the team’s last two games, but he scored 24 against Menlo.

He added a career-high 18 rebounds.

“Coach told me I’m his guy and that he’ll ride me to the end,” Russell said of TMU head coach Kelvin Starr. “That gave me confidence to go hard and go after everything.”

Russell’s baskets were timely.

When Menlo cut TMU’s lead to 75-68 with five minutes left, Russell hit a floater in the lane.

Up nine with two minutes left, he hit a step-back dagger.

“Today, things were just falling for me,” Russell said. “So I went with it.”

Hansel Atencia scored 18 points with four assists for TMU, which led 44-35 at half and by as many as 14 after the break. But Menlo never went away.

“We had to match their intensity,” Atencia said, “because at the end of the day that’s what kept them in the game.”

The Mustangs held the Oaks to 2-of-13 shooting from behind the arc in the first half. Then they withstood a late barrage of threes by Menlo, Russell and Atencia each hitting a grip of free throws to keep Master’s comfortably ahead.

Hodges Bailey‘s shooting served the same purpose. He hit both 3-pointers he took. Brock Gardner scored 11 points and had six rebounds in TMU’s fourth straight win over Menlo.

In the teams’ first meeting this season, Master’s led 50-28 at halftime and won going away, 102-72.

Saturday didn’t come as easily. But Yenor helped earn the same result.
“Big, big, big impact,” Russell said of Yenor. “The fact that he came off the bench and played as well as he did was amazing.”