This one could have turned out like so many others this season.  Games that The Master’s College men’s basketball team were in only to falter down the stretch and not finish.

Only this time Russell Byrd (Santa Clarita, CA) wasn’t going to let it happen again.  The senior transfer put his teammates on his back, scoring his squad’s final 12 points in overtime to close out San Diego Christian 89-80 Tuesday evening on Bross Court.

The victory was the club’s second in a row, the first time the Mustangs have done that in GSAC play as they improved to 9-15 overall and 4-9 in the conference.

Byrd wasn’t the only one who came up big in the extra stanza as Travis Divita (Canyon Country, CA) hit a jumper to get things going and then drained a three-pointer with 3:05 remaining to put the Mustangs ahead for good, 77-75.

That’s when Byrd took over.  He tipped in a missed layup to extend the lead to four points, canned a jumper for another four-point advantage, 81-77, and then added consecutive layups which triggered a game-ending 9-2 run that he finished off with four free throws.

Just to get to the extra stanza, the Mustangs had to rally over the final 10 minutes of regulation.  After leading 40-35 at halftime, the Mustangs were caught and passed (46-45) on a Peter Beale-Wirsing dunk with 16:42 remaining.

They responded with consecutive threes from Chris Patureau (Houston, TX) and Reid Shackelford (Murrieta, CA) only to be ambushed by the Hawks who reeled off 17 straight points over a 4:35 span to vault in front 60-51 at the 10:53 mark.

At that point, it would have been easy to write off the Mustangs who appeared to be following a recent trend.  However, Divita stepped up to snap his teammates out of it, scoring six straight points as the Mustangs outscored the Hawks 17-8 in a 6:30 window to knot the game at 68 on a Shackelford three-pointer with 2:18 left.

Korey Anderson (Clovis, CA) put the Mustangs in front 72-70 with a couple of free throws at the 41-second mark, however, Beale-Wirsing hit a jumper with 10 ticks left on the clock that sent the game to overtime.

With all the excitement of the second-half rally and Byrd’s heroics in overtime, the opening 20 minutes seemed pedestrian in comparison.  However, those minutes featured a solid foundation of accurate shooting that enabled the club to rally and then pull out the win.

Converting at a 57% (17-30) clip in the first half, the Mustangs raced to a 20-10 lead on the strength of an 11-0 blitz that Patureau started with a layup and a three-pointer, and Evan Jenkins (Los Angeles, CA) and Shackelford capped off with back-to-back trifectas.

A Shackelford layup at the 8:36 mark gave the Mustangs their largest lead (26-15) of the game and they still enjoyed a 10-point (32-22) cushion after Byrd nailed a jumper almost three minutes later (5:52).

However, the Hawks closed out the half with a rush, slicing six points off the deficit (34-30) with an 8-2 skein that Derrick Thompson punctuated with a three-pointer at the 2:51 mark.  The visitors got as close as 37-35 on a Beale-Wirsing dunk with 40 seconds left in the half, however, Byrd gave a preview of clutch things to come when he drained a three-pointer as the half ended, sending the Mustangs to the locker room ahead 40-35.

The Mustangs wound up shooting a crisp 57% (35-62) from the field, highlighted by a sparkling 6-9 showing in overtime and an 11-19 performance from behind the arc.

Byrd’s all-around game was on full display against the Hawks as he scored a team-high 25 points on 10-18 shooting while ripping down a game-high 11 rebounds, his sixth double-double of the year, and dishing out a team-best six assists.

Byrd got plenty of help from his teammates, among them Shackelford who buried five three-pointers en route to 17 points and Anderson who added 14 more and took down eight rebounds.  Divita, who, like Shackelford, went 6-9 from the field, finished with 13 points while Patureau energized the squad off the bench with 12 points and 10 boards, notching his second double-double of the season.

Now, the Mustangs go in search of their first three-game winning streak of the season, traveling to Phoenix for a Saturday game against No. 7 Arizona Christian, a club that beat them 78-70 on January 15.