Box Score LONDON, Ont. -- The Friday night home slate at Alumni Hall opened in dramatic fashion for the Western Mustangs women's basketball team, as they earned a hard-fought 69-60 victory against arch-rival the Queen's Gaels.

After splitting last weekend's road-trip to the nation's capital with a loss to Ottawa and a win at Carleton, the Mustangs were looking to settle in at Alumni Hall. The home-court advantage was felt early, and a raucous crowd of supporters voiced their allegiance for the purple and white.

Although miscues were abundant for both teams, neither team lacked hustle, with the Gaels holding a weak grip on their 33-32 halftime lead.

"We made some adjustments at the half and the key was getting some stops and rebounds. That gave us some separation and we took it the rest of the way home," said Head Coach #Brian Cheng".

The struggles on offense that permeated the game for the Gaels were most evident early in the second half, with neither team being able to convert their shot attempts until the 6:45 mark of the third quarter. In their first two games, Queen's had shot a paltry 33.8% from the field, with Western hardly better at 36.8%.

It took a while for Western to get its own first points of the half, but when the Mustangs did start finding their shot opportunities, they made them count to the tune of 53.8% accuracy from the field, while the Gaels wilted to two conversions on 17 attempts.

Already riding the team's hot-streak, first-year guard Mackenzie Puklicz iced the win for the Mustangs with a pair of back-to-back three-pointers, putting the home team up by 14 points with three minutes to play. For a game that had been neck-and-neck for so long, there would be no doubt of the final outcome.

Western's sharpshooters got to work early, with veteran guard Jenny Vaughan leading the charge with a three-pointer off the dribble to open scoring. As last year's OUA scoring-champion, Vaughan already finds herself atop the province and second in Canada with 23.0 points per game and looks to hold onto that distinction for another season. She finished with a game-high 21 points.

Veteran forward Katelyn Leddy came into the game with the second-best rebounding average in the OUA and added another strong outing on the boards for the Mustangs. The post-pivot finished with a game-high 11 rebounds, rounding out her 10-point double-double.

Coach Cheng chalks up the success his core group has had to experience; no member of the starting five has less than three years playing collegiate basketball, with guard Caroline Wolynski standing out as the lone outlier.

"We're just blessed to have four fifths years – and Caroline who is playing like a fifth-year player – and we've got first-years coming off the bench and playing like second-year players," said Cheng after the win.

"There's a lot of fifth-year magic. They've been around so long that they know the tricks of the trade and they rarely lose their composure. I think with [our veteran players], we're able to keep it on the rails fairly tight when the adversity comes. We just get a little tougher and our resolve is pretty good."

Queen's guard Liz Boag lead the Gaels with 14 points, while teammate Andrea Priamo contributed nine rebounds.

The Mustangs, now 2-1-0 on the season, look to continue their winning-streak when the York Lions come to town on Sunday, November 10. Tip-off is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. at Alumni Hall. Fans from around the world can watch the game live here.