LONDON, Ont – A career-high 41 points from Greg Morrow helped the Western Mustangs put a scare into the nation's top team, keeping things close until the final minute before the Ottawa Gee-Gees narrowly edged out the Mustangs by a 90-82 score on Friday night at Alumni Hall.
 
Not only did Morrow top his own individual record, a mark that he set just two games ago against Laurier, but his 41 points led all scorers on Friday. Joining Morrow in double digits were teammates Anthony Spiridis and Cameron Morris with 14 and 11 points respectively. Four players scored in double digits for the Gee-Gees, with Caleb Agada recording 21 points and Johnny Berhanemeskel following behind with 20 of his own. Both teams were impressive on the free throw line, achieving a 74.2% success rate for the Gee-Gees and 71.4% for the Mustangs.
 
"It's a bitter sweet feeling. It feels good that we played good as a team and I had a good individual performance, but it doesn't feel right because we lost," says Morrow.
 
"Greg was huge," said head coach Brad Campbell praising Morrow for his impressive play. "Greg offensively gave us a chance to win that game. When anyone scores 40 and loses, its disappointing. But every single point of that 41 was required for us to have a chance to win this game."
 
Right from tip-off the Mustangs defence glued themselves to the Gee-Gees like their life depended on it, forcing the Gee-Gees to take until the end of the shot clock to finish their play. The first quarter saw the Gee-Gees sink five three point shots, as their strong outside shooting kept them ahead on the board, while the Mustangs countered with inside shooting, including sinking all eight of their free throws in the frame. The quarter ended in the visitors favour with a score of 28-18.
 
The Mustangs slowly closed the gap in the second quarter, utilizing fast footwork and improved defence to generate steals and capitalize on their chances, eventually shrinking the Gee-Gees lead to 42-38 heading into the half. Helping to lead the way for the Mustangs in the second frame was Morris who scored nine of his eleven points, with George Johnson helping to get him the ball more often than not.
 
Not to be outdone, Berhanemeskel powered the Ottawa offence, draining 10 of his 20 points in the opening two quarters, while also helping out on the defensive end with two steals.
 
After halftime the purple and white refused to back down on their aggressive defence and continued to grab rebounds and steals to keep within four for the opening minutes of the half. Other than a few brief moments the Mustangs kept within five points of their oppenents, thanks in large part to Morrow who took the smooth path into the paint multiple times proving to the opposition that the key was no enemy of Morrow. The London native's strong shooting, he connected on 75% of his field goal attempts for the night, helped the Mustangs put up a stellar quarter as they outscored the Gee-Gees 22-21 to cut Ottawa's lead to 63-60, setting the stage for a thrilling final quarter.

Morrow continued to lead the team in the key and in defence taking the ball in his possession whenever he could. The Gee-Gees responded to the Mustang threat, once again utilizing their strong outside shooting to keep a comfortable lead, yet, the Mustangs never let the team get settled. The crowd, which had been getting progressively louder throughout the game, erupted with 3:26 left when Tom Figliano swept up a pass from Morris before sliding underneath the basket to tie the game at 79-79. Whistles and cheers followed as the pace picked up instantly once the Mustangs tied the game. However, despite the tough defence that the Mustangs challenged the Gee-Gees with, their opponents were quick to keep up and toss three pointers while also grabbing rebounds to regain the lead, eventually claiming a 90-82 win.
 
Despite facing off with the CIS top team there's no rest for the Mustangs tomorrow as they'll face the CIS No. 2 Carleton Ravens. When asked about tomorrow night's contest, Morrow said that the team plans to "come out aggressive like we did today.

"Just as a team, we can't be timid, we just have to come out of the gate. Sometimes we start off slow on offence and defence, so we dig ourselves in a hole and have trouble getting out of it. So we just need to be focused."
 
"Defensively, we got to get back to what we can do," said coach Campbell. "We're going to face a very tough Carleton opponent tomorrow. They're going to test us on the rebounding and offensively they're very good, too. We've got to get back to containing our man and playing some defensive basics a little bit better."
 
The Mustangs face the defending national champion Carleton Ravens on Saturday night at Alumni Hall. Tip-off is at 8 p.m. and can be watched live on OUA.tv. Fans can also listen live on CHRW Radio 94.9 FM.