Box Score LONDON, Ont. – Strong shooting and a well balanced scoring attack helped the Western Mustangs women’s basketball team break out of their two game losing streak on Saturday, defeating the Guelph Gryphons 89-70 at Alumni Hall.
 
“Obviously it always feels good when you win,” said Western head coach Brian Cheng after the game. “We came out and responded, we came out with energy, effort, and talk. I think it was a good performance, a balanced performance, offensively for our team. Everyone contributed, we did a lot of good things, but one thing we have to be concerned about is we did give up 70 points to our opponents.
 
“For us 70 points is too much for whoever you’re playing, whether it’s Guelph, Windsor, we have to keep teams down to be competitive.”
 
Leading the Mustangs offence was a quartet of players, as Jenny Vaughan, Emma Nieuwenhuizen, Laura Dally, and Mara Greunke all hit double digits. Vaughan topped the list with 19, with both Nieuwenhuizen and Dally at 18, while Gruenke netted 16 points.
 
Along with her 18 points Dally nearly matched the triple-double she recorded against Lakehead last Friday, notching 10 assissts and eight rebounds.
 
“Laura Dally is a special player in our league, it’s a bonus that she’s such a good person and she deserves all the success she’s gotten,” said Cheng. “She kind of struggled at the beginning of the season but we just kept the faith in her and we knew it was going to come at some point. Now it’s come. She’s been consistent for the past three games and I don’t see it being any different from here on out.”
 
Western started out strong on Saturday, taking an early 7-3 lead before an aggressive Gryphons defence began to pressure the Mustangs, and lead to Guelph taking the lead midway through the quarter with an 8-2 run. After Cheng called a timeout the Mustangs began to settle down, retaking the lead and finishing the quarter up 21-18.
 
After a back and forth start Western began to take control in the second, largely on the shooting of Nieuwenhuizen who exploded for 12 points in the quarter. The Strathroy native was a force, scoring points in traffic and hitting everything she attempted, going 5-5 on field goals and 2-2 from the free throw line. Nieuwenhuizen’s outburst helped the Mustangs to outscore Guelph 21-11 and take a 42-29 lead into halftime.
 
One trend that become evident in the first two quarters was the Mustangs boasting a much stronger shooting percentage than their opponents, hitting 53.3 percent of their field goals compared to 30.8 percent for Guelph. That trend continued in the third quarter, with Guelph shooting 34.8 percent in the third versus Western getting 58.8 percent of their shots to fall, leading to a 65-48 lead for the Mustangs entering the final quarter.
 
The Gryphons refused to give up, playing aggressively throughout the final quarter, however Western maintained their lead and picked up a 89-70 victory.
 
With the win the Mustangs now move to 8-7 on the season, good for third place in the OUA West, and now set their sights on the undefeated Windsor Lancers who make their way to London on Wednesday night, for a game that coach Cheng knows won’t be an easy one.
 
“Like everybody else, just batten down the hatches and get to work,” said Cheng when asked how the team will prepare for the Lancers. “You try to put forth a good preparation week on two days. Two days is never enough to prepare for a team like Windsor, they’re the team to beat, they’re the reigning two time champions and they’re one of two teams still undefeated in the OUA West.
 
“Ultimately we’ll have to put forth a really good game, and I know we can’t let Windsor score 70 because they won’t let us score 70. We’re going to have to shore up a few things and see if we can put up a good game against Windsor on Wednesday.”
 
Tip-off for Wednesday night’s game is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. at Alumni Hall. Fans can watch all the action live on Mustangs TV at this link: http://www.ssncanada.ca/game/4512/