Sea Lion win streak snapped, Lady Sea Lions victorious

Eli Davis goes up for a bucket in Tuesday’s win over Cal Baptist. The win gave the Sea Lions sole possession of first place before a loss to The Master’s on Saturday. Photo by Amanda Addie

PLNU forward Meghan McGuire shoots over a defender in Tuesday’s 66-63 win over Cal Baptist. The Sea Lions followed that up with a 76-75 win at sixth-ranked The Master’s. Eighth-ranked PLNU improved to 10-2. Photo by Amanda Addie

PLNU’s 10-game winning streak came to an end Saturday night in Santa Clarita as The Master’s College knocked off the visiting Sea Lions 81-72. The ninth-ranked Sea Lions (13-2, 4-1) never led and could not control the Mustang team that was deadly from long range.

Ryan Zamroz led the Mustangs with 24 points and was four for four from beyond the arc. As a team, The Master’s shot 11 of 18 (61 percent) from long range and 58.7 percent from the field.

The Sea Lions fell behind early and could not overcome a poor shooting night.

Just more than five minutes into the game, the Sea Lions trailed 15-2. From that point, the closest they would come was 19-12 with 12 minutes left in the first half, but the Mustangs extended the lead to as many as 17 and led 38-25 at the break.

The Mustangs scored eight unanswered points early in the second half to make it a 19-point lead with 15 minutes remaining.
Trailing 73-57 with 2:30 left, the Sea Lions hit three consecutive three-pointers that made it 73-66 with 1:10 to play, but it was too little, too late.

“We told our guys this is going to be a character test,” said Assistant Coach Jordan Courneya. “Everybody loses a game; we’ve got to bounce back and stay positive. We’re obviously a good team; we just had a bad night and Master’s played well.”

The loss came after one of the biggest wins of the year on Tuesday night, when PLNU handed No. 15 Cal Baptist its first loss of the year.
The Sea Lions looked deeper and stronger than the visiting Lancers in the 75-67 win.

“A lot of our success this season has been because of our depth and versatility,” said Sanderson, who led the way with 18 points.

“Everyone brings something different to the table for us. If a lineup isn’t working, then our coaches have several options they can turn to.”

The women’s team picked up perhaps the biggest win of the season so far, coming from behind to defeat The Master’s 76-75. PLNU trailed by eight points with five minutes left, but senior Kati Hilbelink sunk four three-pointers to lead the No. 8 Sea Lions past the No. 6 Mustangs.

“It’s tough to pull out a come-from-behind win against a very good team like The Master’s,” said Hilbelink. “We kept working hard and figured things out at the end. We really played together.”

After a back-and-forth opening 20 minutes, The Mustangs took a 34-30 lead into the break. The Master’s seemed to be taking over the game at the beginning of the second half, building their lead to nine (63-54) at the 7:19 mark.

PLNU, which shot just 40 percent in the first half, turned its game up and played more aggressively in the final minutes, attempting and making more shots, and forcing turnovers. The Sea Lions were also successful on seven three-pointers in the second stanza, five from Hilbelink.The Sea Lions travel to Irvine on Tuesday to play Concordia (8-7, 2-3).

The men are back in action on Tuesday night when they take on No. 3 Concordia (12-1, 3-1) in Irvine. The Sea Lions split the season series with the Eagles last season before falling to the eventual national runner-ups in the GSAC semifinals.