Box Score ST. CATHARINES, Ont. – Dani Elgadi scored 31 points to help power a strong second half comeback as the Brock Badgers defeated the Western Mustangs men's basketball team 72-71 at the Bob Davis Gymnasium on Wednesday night.
The loss gives Western an 8-13 record, good for fourth place in the OUA West, and leaves the Mustangs two points behind the third place Laurier Golden Hawks and two points ahead of fifth place Lakehead.
Elgadi's 31 points led all scorers, and the 6'7" guard also grabbed 10 rebounds to record a double-double for the night.
Greg Morrow and
Rashayne Case led the Mustangs in scoring recording 16 points each to lead the purple and white offence.
After an opening quarter that saw the two teams trading points the Mustangs broke things open in the second as Case got things started with a three pointer that would eventually motivate Western to completely shut down the Badgers holding them to only five points while scoring 22 of their own to take a comfortable 19 point lead to end the half up 37-18.
Despite facing a large deficit the Badgers refused to give up in front of their home fans, rendering the Mustangs scoreless for the first four minutes of the third quarter before Western responded by going on a 10-2 run to reestablish their lead. However the Mustangs weren't the only ones that would go on an extended scoring run as Elgadi immediately fired back for the Badgers, sinking 11 consecutive points to cut Western's lead to six, and leaving the Mustangs to eventually end the quarter with a 54-47 lead.
All the action came down to a deciding last four minutes in the fourth where the Badgers were able to cut the Mustangs lead to only three points. A costly turnover with just over two minutes left in the game allowed Brandon John to hit a jumper and pull the home side within one before sinking another jump shot with just over a minute left to pull ahead on what would end up as the final basket of the game giving Brock a 72-71 win.
The Mustangs now get set for their final regular season contest as the host the third-place Laurier Golden Hawks on Saturday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. at Alumni Hall.
