Box Score LONDON, Ont. – With the game on the line, Western's potent offence shined as the Mustangs extended their win-streak to eight games in a thrilling victory over the Brock Badgers, 69-66.

"We needed this test and we needed to know, win or lose, where we sat," said Mustangs head coach Brian Cheng. "Fortunately, we had enough stops and enough scorers to squeak that one out. Give Brock credit, they pushed us to our limit in our arena. Every win is special, but this one was against a very good Brock team that was ranked in the top ten."

With the game tied-up at 56 apiece with 2:15 to play, the veteran Mustangs went to work, with fifth-year veterans Katelyn Leddy and Jenny Vaughan hit back-to-back lay-ups. Vaughan, the OUA's reigning scoring-champion, then hit an open three to cap the unanswered streak at seven points to put Western's eighth-straight victory on ice.

Vaughan continues to cement her status as the OUA's best scorer, totalling a game-high 25 points, including a 3-for-6 showing from the three-point line. Leddy finished with a game-high 11 rebounds and 16 points of her own, including a dominating 10 points and five rebounds in the final quarter of play.

The Badgers are coming off a season in which they went 18-3 under OUA West Coach of the Year, Si Khounviseth, only to be knocked out in the first round of the playoffs. While Brock had already matched last season's loss total on its way to a 5-3 record heading into tonight's game, they boast an impressive contingent, including a First-Team All-Canadian in post-pivot Nicole Rosenkranz who finished the night with 16 points and a team-high nine rebounds.

The Badgers may be the toughest test the Mustangs have faced since the first weekend of action in Ottawa; few teams in the OUA offer such an array of talented scorers and physical defenders. Brock was able to utilize quick ball-movement early in the game to puzzle Western defenders, allowing easy looks under the basket for scorers like Andrea Polischuk. Polischuk would lead the game with 15 points at the half, eventually finishing with a team-high 19 points.

After playing to a 35-32 lead at the half, Western began to slow to a stand-still on offence in the third quarter, connecting on only 2-of-14 attempts from the field – both of them from beyond the three-point arc.

Though the offence lost its groove for a stretch, the defence impressed coach Cheng for its perseverance.

"We just have to run our stuff with pace," said coach Cheng. "There wasn't enough pace in our offence. I thought we were giving effort but it wasn't a unified effort."

"I will say this: when we had the lull in the third quarter, we held the fort. They didn't run up on us – it was only a five-point margin. That was enough for us to come on back in the fourth quarter and keep them in range to catch them by the end."

In the grand scheme of the OUA, the result of this game will be a mere footnote if the Mustangs can't turn their big win in November into big wins in the February postseason. At least the home team knows where they stand today versus the cream of the crop in Ontario basketball.

The first half of the Mustangs' season before the winter break concludes with a matinee match-up at home versus the McMaster Marauders this Saturday. Tip-Off is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. at Alumni Hall and fans can catch all the action live on Mustangs TV.