The second half of OUA regular-season play begins on the road for the Western Mustangs women's basketball team this week as they travel to Windsor to play the CIS number one ranked Lancers at the St. Denis Centre, January 7.

Eager to warm up for the new year, the Mustangs womens basketball team participated in the Windsor Holiday Classic Tournament over the winter break. Taking a trip to Windsor, Ontario at the end of December, the women took on two days of games. Opening up the tournament facing the McGill Martlets the Mustangs were determined to work on their defence and shooting in these exhibition games to prepare themselves for the second half of their season. They fell short 13 points of the win, trailing behind McGill in the final minutes, with a final of 63-50. To cap their two-day tournament, they faced a tough Calgary Dinos team in a contest that saw the Dinos emerge with a 76-60 victory. Although taking another loss in Windsor, these exhibition games helped the Mustangs train and stay focused during the break and get ready for a tougher and harder semester of games.   
 
A couple of losses at Alumni Hall capped the first half of the season for Western, placing them third in the OUA West division with a record of 2-6. So far on the season, veteran guard Caroline Wolynski leads the team in scoring with 10.9 points per game, followed closely by Mackenzie Puklicz who averages 9.9 points in addition to an average of 5.0 rebounds.
 
This is a young Mustangs team, with seven players in their first year of CIS eligibity. One rookie, Maddy Horst, has seemingly become comfortable on the court with an average of 9.8 points per game. Her aggressive playing style and speed had earned her a starting spot and 31.5 minutes of court time per game.
 
Horst and her teammates will face a challenging Windsor squad this week, a team that leads the OUA with a 49.4% field goal percentage and an average of 81.6 points scored per game. Finding a way to neutralize Windsor's Korissa Williams, whose 60.6% shooting percentage has led to an average 19.6 points per game, will be key for the Mustang women.
 
The last meeting between these two teams was the season opener on November 5 which saw Western fall 88-41 at Alumni Hall. Puklicz led scoring for the Mustangs in that game, shooting for 11 points, while second-year forward Victoria Heine took down six rebounds. Heine has become more of a presence for the Mustangs on the court as the season has progressed, grabbing 19 rebounds and scoring 20 points in her last two games combined.
 
Tip-off is at 6 p.m. for this first game of 2015, which can be watched on OUA.tv.