Box Score LONDON, Ont. – In a heartbreaking game that saw the Mustangs enter the fourth quarter boasting an eight-point lead, the Laurier Golden Hawks were able to fight back and shock the home team 53-43 in Alumni Hall, eliminating Western from the OUA playoffs.
 
"We got beat by a better team today," said Mustangs' head coach Brian Cheng after the game. "I think we are definitely as good as they are but in these [elimination games] you have got to show up for forty minutes. You have to give credit to Laurier; they were the better team today."
 
One of the OUA's emerging rivalries was renewed for the third time this season- the knock-out playoff game proving to be the final say in a season series that has to this point been as close as could be.
 
Unfortunately for the Mustangs, the final push never materialized on Saturday afternoon and Western fell short in its bid for OUA championship contention.
 
The first quarter was full of surprises for the Mustangs; the offensive powerhouse dialled back their usual early-game assault in favour of a slower-paced, deliberate attack. Even more surprising, Western head coach Brian Cheng unleashed a zone-defence, daring the Golden Hawks to settle for jump-shots.
 
That tactic paid off, with Laurier connecting on only 29.4% of their attempts. Heading into the playoffs, the Golden Hawks sat 16th in the OUA with 37.1% field-goal accuracy. Despite the Mustangs' aggressive defensive-set, turnovers and offensive rebounds would give the visitors a seven-shot advantage in the quarter, allowing Laurier to pull even with Western at 11 points apiece.
 
Coach Cheng switched back to Western's familiar man-to-man defence at the start of the second quarter and the Mustangs responded by allowing only nine points in the frame. While Western's offense had seemed restrained early in the game, the Purple and White exploded on that side of the ball as well, paced by 3-for-4 three-point shooting from long-range specialist Kelsey Wright. The lengthy veteran's nine points led all scorers at the half, but the wing made her presence felt on defence as well, tallying a steal and a block while locking down the Golden Hawks' perimeter threats.
 
After being down eight to start the second half, Laurier screamed back with nine unanswered points to take a 29-28 lead with just over five minutes to go in the third quarter. The remaining 15 minutes of play would live up to the teams' recent history of hard-fought, down-to-the-wire match-ups, which had seen Western earn their first-round playoff berth with a 65-57 victory over Laurier to round out the regular season and—a month earlier—Laurier win a dizzying 74-73 contest against the Mustangs at home in Waterloo, Ontario.
 
Western was able to build another eight-point lead to enter the fourth quarter, but the Golden Hawks roared back once again, this time with 15 unanswered points taking a 44-37 lead over the Mustangs.
 
Down five points with two minutes remaining, it would take one final push for the Mustangs to reclaim the lead.
 
Veteran forward Melissa Rondinelli corralled a missed Wright three for a put-back and-one. Rondinelli missed the ensuing foul shot, which the Golden Hawks followed with a mid-range jump-shot from the top of the key to stretch their lead back to five with 40.5 seconds left on the clock. An intentional foul from first-year Mustang Mackenzie Puklicz would put Laurier's Samantha Jacobs on the foul-line with two shots, meaning the same player who opened scoring in the first quarter for the Golden Hawks would have a chance to ice the win for her team. Jacobs did just that.
 
Intentional fouls and last-breath efforts would round out the remaining seconds of the game. By then, however, the damage had been done: Western would be eliminated from contention for the OUA crown.
 
Rondinelli led the game with 17 points. The OUA's top-scorer, fifth-year Jenny Vaughan, finished with only five points on 2-for-12 shooting.
 
The Golden Hawks were paced by 13 points from Jacobs and 10 points from Laura Doyle, the product of their balanced offense.
 
After the game, Coach Cheng shared his thoughts on this season as whole.
 
"I said to the girls in there that the sting of this game won't pass for a few days or weeks but as time passes and we reflect on this as a pretty successful season for the Mustangs' program," said Cheng. "I think this was a step forward under our tenure. The culture is starting to change and we're starting to build."
 
"Jenny said it best: 'this might be the end of our season but this is the beginning of this program.'"