By Joseph Myers | NAIA Media Services

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – (Box Score) No. 2-seeded The Master's (Calif.) steamrolled its way into the second round of the 2017 Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship with an 85-56 victory over seventh-seeded Benedictine (Kan.) Thursday night at Municipal Auditorium.

With the win, the Mustangs (27-4) advance into Friday's second round, where they will take on third-seeded Texas Wesleyan (25-7) at 7:30 p.m. CDT. Texas Wesleyan advanced with a 74-68 victory over Cumberlands (Ky.) earlier Thursday.

The 5,737 fans in attendance for the evening session (last four games of the day) is the largest for a Thursday “last-four-games” since 2010.

The Master's only led 35-32 at halftime after making just 9-of-32 (28.1 percent) from the field in the first half and Benedictine (21-11) took a 37-35 lead on a 3-pointer by Andre Yates with 19:07 remaining, but that was the final lead the Ravens would hold.

After ties at 37 and 39, Lawrence Russell made a jumper with 16:36 to go to give the Mustangs a 41-39 lead they would never relinquish. A 12-2 run by The Master's over a span of 3:25 grew the lead to 10 points at 51-41 and the Ravens got no closer than eight points the rest of the way.

"After a slow start, we were happy with how the second half went," said The Master's head coach Kelvin Starr. "We weren't shooting the ball well in the first half, but our defense kept us in the game. (Reid Shackelford) hit three 3-pointers in a row and that really opened up the game for us. We're really excited to be back since we haven't been here in a long time."

The Master's - playing in their first NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship since 2000 - advanced to the second round for the first time since that 2000 appearance, when the Mustangs advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to Life (Ga.), 79-68.

The Mustangs, who made 11 3-pointers in the game and outscored Benedictine 50-24 in the second half, were led by Shackelford's 22 points. He made 6-of-13 from 3-point range and added five rebounds and two assists for The Master's. Russell had 21 points and four rebounds, Timothy Soares finished with a double-double with 12 points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots and Hansel Atencia chipped in four points, five rebounds, two steals and 11 assists, the most assists in a national tournament game since Nick Syrie of MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) handed out 13 assists versus Our Lady of the Lake (Texas) in 2016.

The Ravens finished the game making only 19 of their 62 shots (30.6 percent) and only 9-of-27 (33.3 percent) from 3-point range. Yates had a game-high 27 to lead Benedictine, followed by Connor Fleming with 11 and six rebounds and Jake Schannuth had nine and eight rebounds for the Ravens in the loss.

"It was a really tough loss," said Benedictine head coach Ryan Moody. "You have to credit The Master's for their tough play. They did some good things in the second half to get to the rim and us not hitting our jump shots really affected our defense. I'm really proud of our six seniors. Making three national tournament appearances in the last four years is impressive. I just hope they don't take this game as a snapshot of their season."

TEAM NOTES
Benedictine
Benedictine made its third appearance in four years at the national championship tournament… The Ravens dropped to 5-5 in the first round and 13-9 overall… Benedictine entered the tournament dropping four out of their last five contests… The Ravens were knocked out of the Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament by Graceland (Iowa), receiving an at-large bid to the national tournament… Leading scorer, Andre Yates played in his first contest Feb. 22, 2017…Yates accumulated double figures in 23 out of 27 contests, surpassing 20+ in 11 of those games… Entering the game, Benedictine held teams to an average of 69.4 points per game, tonight The Master’s scored 85… Connor Fleming reached double-digits for just the fifth time this season.

The Master’s
The Master’s made its eighth national championship tournament appearance, first since 2000… TMU reached the national tournament seven-straight years from 1994-2000… The Mustangs improved to 4-4 in the first round and 7-7 overall… The Master’s received a bid to the national tournament after claiming the Golden State Athletic Conference Tournament Crown… TMU entered the tournament riding a seven-game win-streak… Reid Shackelford has reached double-digits in 15-consecutive contests… Shackelford entered the game shooting 40.3 percent from 3-point range… TMU has tabbed 10+ three-pointers in games 11 this season, including 21 against Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) on Nov. 11, 2016… Timothy Soares tabbed his seventh double-double with 12 point and 12 rebounds… Lawrence Russell has gone six-consecutive games with 10 or more points… Hansel Atencia dished out 11 assists for the second time this season… The Mustangs produced 11 triples in the contest… The Master’s moved to the Round of 16 for the fifth time in program history.

General Tournament Notes
The Golden State Athletic Conference improves to 3-1 in first round games in this year’s tournament…The Heart of America Athletic Conference goes 1-3 in first round games…The 29-point margin of victory is the largest so far in this year’s tournament and the largest since Biola (Calif.) defeated Faulkner (Ala.) by 30-points in the first round of the 2016 tournament…The Master’s won its first National tournament game in 17 years, tied with Life (Ga.) for the longest gap between victories for winning teams at this year’s tournament…All four No. 2 seeds advance to the second round, joining all four No. 1 seeds…The Heart fails to advance at least two teams into the second round for the first time since the 2012 national tournament.