The Western Women’s basketball team came up short in their debut at the Pandas HoopFest tournament to the hosting University of Alberta Pandas with a final score of 77 – 69.

Despite a game-high 17 points from veteran guard Jenny Vaughan and 16 points from third-year guard Laura Dally – including seven in the opening quarter for Dally – the Mustang’s frontcourt players were unable to avoid the referees’ whistles on the way to significant foul trouble early in the game.

Third-year Melissa Rondinelli, second-year Jory McDonald and newcomer Mara Greunke – all players predicted to have a significant impact on the Mustangs’ rebounding and post-play for the 2012-2013 season – each had three personal fouls by the second quarter. With Alberta capitalizing on 15 of 20 chances from the free-throw line compared to only six points on ten opportunities for Western, the inability to defend without fouling proved too costly for the visiting Mustangs.

The Pandas’ former-NCAA conference championship winner Kelly Lyons aggressively attacked the boards in the first quarter to grab five offensive rebounds. While taking only five shots in the game from the field, her ability to draw fouls early in the game afforded the veteran nine shots from the free-throw line, connecting on eight. Lyons finished with a game-high 11 of Alberta’s 44 rebounds in the game. Western finished with 23 rebounds, the high-scoring Dally leading all Mustangs with seven.

Alberta lead 42 – 31 at the half.

The Pandas’ superior results on the boards continued into the second half with the Mustangs’ regular frontcourt players still battling personal foul trouble. Hoping to regain positive momentum at both ends of the court, Coach Brian Cheng deployed a smaller line-up with guards Caroline Wolynski and Camilla Paluch providing increased pressure on defense in lieu of the struggling Mustangs’ forwards.

The defensive revival that worked for much of the third quarter gave way to a debilitating start to the fourth, with Alberta showing focus and determination on a late 11 – 2 scoring run. Alberta displayed excellent balance and shot-selection on offense with Lyons, Sally Hillier and Anneka Bakker each finishing with 14 points apiece for the Pandas on no worse than 50% field-goal accuracy.

While a late push by the Mustangs’ brought the final scoring to only an eight point difference, it is clear to Coach Cheng where improvement is needed to beat the best teams in the CIS.
“Moving forward, we must be able to compete and sustain effort for all forty minutes,” said Cheng. “Our second quarter put us into a hole and with a team that competes like Alberta, it is very difficult to play three of four quarters and be successful.”

As always, Coach Cheng stressed the importance of using a preseason tournament as a basis for growth and development, embracing the positives and addressing the Mustangs’ shortcomings on a game-to-game basis.

“We have been starting and finishing games strong and once again saw tremendous resiliency from our team, finishing on a sixteen to six run. It’s a tremendous positive for us moving forward,” Cheng said.

With Friday night’s game in Edmonton and the previous home games against York and McGill as the only proof so far this season, fans should expect a very potent Mustangs’ squad once they solve their early preseason, mid-game struggles.

For at least one night however, those struggles would cause Western to come up short.

The Mustangs will look to even out their tournament record Saturday on day two of HoopFest with an 8:00 PM (Mountain Standard Time) game versus the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds. Western’s current preseason record, including tournament games, stands at 1–2.