LONDON, Ont. – The Western Mustangs men's basketball team matched up against the McMaster Marauders Saturday evening at Alumni Hall in a 79-49 loss, leaving the team with a record of 2-8 heading into the second half of the 2013-14 regular season.

Mustangs head coach Brad Campbell was quick to point out that the Mustang did not have any luck getting the ball into the basket as they scored only 30% of their shots from the floor.

"Our biggest weakness this game was putting the ball in the basket. I mean, McMaster's defence is good, but we also had a lot of easy opportunities that we just didn't cash in on. We missed a bunch of open layups, three-pointers and shots, which put a lot of stress on our defence," said Campbell.

The Mustangs came out with a steady half-court offence in the first quarter, feeding the ball inside to Peter Scholtes who posted eight points, followed by Eric McDonald who added another six. By the second quarter, McMaster began to up the tempo of the game with a strong defensive strategy, scoring 42 points and holding the Mustangs to only 26 points.

McMaster continued their defensive pressure right into the third quarter, allowing Western to score only five points in the first eight minutes.  The Mustangs also had difficulty shooting against the defensive pressure of the Marauders scoring only 28%, while McMaster did not once give up the lead, outscoring Western 15-11 in the final frame resulting in a 79-49 loss for the Mustangs.

Rashayne Case and Quinn Henderson led the team in scoring with 10 points apiece, followed by Greg Morrow and Peter Scholtes who both scored nine points on the night.

Campbell will be looking forward to the holiday break as the Mustangs will take time off to refresh and come out strong in the second half of the season.

"We get to regroup a little bit. We'll take next week off and just have some meetings and then start our December practice period after exams which will give us a chance to recharge the battery."

After the break the Mustangs will play a pair of exhibition contests against Rochester College on December 30 and 31 before resuming their regular season schedule against the Guelph Gryphons on Wednesday, January 8. Game time is set for 8:00 p.m. in Guelph.