For 20 minutes Saturday afternoon, The Master’s University’s women’s basketball team didn’t appear to be fully recovered from its GSAC-opening loss to Menlo College earlier this week.

Then the second half happened.

“I thought we responded really well in the second half,” said coach Dan Waldeck of his team’s 71-57 victory over visiting William Jessup University. “Our team is quickly learning how tough conference play can be and today we grew up a ton.”

The Mustangs grew up enough to even their Golden State Athletic Conference record at 1-1 while improving to 10-3 overall.

At the front of the second-half charge were sophomore guards Sabrina Thompson and Hannah Ostrom. The two combined for seven points in a half-opening, 12-3 run that propelled the Mustangs to a 45-30 lead at the 6:22 mark of the period.

The Warriors answered with nine straight points, but a Rebekah Throns 3-pointer and an Anika Neuman layup sent the Mustangs to the final quarter up 54-46.

The Warriors closed to 56-50 two minutes into the fourth before Thompson took over once again. She canned all three free throws after being fouled on a shot from behind the arc and then added a jumper and another charity toss in a burst that extended the lead to 15 points, from which William Jessup never recovered.

A Hannah Forrar jumper with 3:06 left to play gave the Mustangs their largest lead of the evening, 69-53.

“Sabrina was terrific in the second half,” Waldeck said. “It’s great to see (Hannah) Forrar back. Anika and Hannah O were steady again.”

Forrar and Neuman combined for 16 first-half points as the Mustangs built a 17-11 lead after one quarter.

A Neuman bucket with 6:47 remaining in the opening half gave her club a 26-16 advantage before TMU settled for a 33-27 lead at the break.

Thompson paced four Mustangs in double figures with 16 points and handed out a team-high four assists. Neuman added 14 points and hauled down a team-best eight rebounds, while Forrar (13) and Ostrom (10) combined for 23 points.

Here’s the box score.

Just as the Mustangs are getting on track, they’ll take a four-day break before returning to GSAC play next Thursday at Arizona Christian in Phoenix.