LONDON, Ont – A team-high 27 points from Greg Morrow helped lead the Western Mustangs to a 90-69 victory over the Waterloo Warriors in their regular season debut on Wednesday night at Alumni Hall.
 
Morrow was one of four Mustangs to put up double digit point totals in the win. Joining him atop the purple and white scoresheet were Peter Scholtes with 18 points in his first game back since the 2013-14 season, Anthony Spiridis with 15 points, and Jedson Tavernier who recorded 10 points.
 
Jon Ravenhorst sunk 29 points for the Warriors to lead all players, with teammate Ben Davis next up for the Warriors with 12 of his own. Mike Pereira led the Warriors defence with a game-high 11 rebounds.
 
Following the win Western head coach Brad Campbell was happy with the victory in the team's season opener, but he was quick to point out that the Mustangs will need to continue to improve to compete with the top teams in the league.
 
"We're happy with any win, but if we want to achieve what we want to achieve by the end of the season we need to continue to get better." said head coach Brad Campbell. "Greg is one of the better players in the country and he's our best player. He was good enough for us tonight, but he's going to need to be at a better level and great for us, which he can be, for some of our future games coming up."
 
Both teams came out strong off the tip defensively, keeping the score low for the first five minutes of play. The Mustangs began to take control with four minutes left in the first frame, going on a 14-5 run. Ravenhorst recorded each of his team's five points in the quarter, while both Scholtes and Morrow notched six points apiece to help Western to a 19-5 lead after the opening 10 minutes.
 
The Mustangs didn't back down their defensive guard throughout the second quarter, with the dynamic duo of Scholtes and Morrow grabbing four rebounds each to help the Mustangs in the possession game. The Warriors began to fight back midway through the quarter, eventually closing the gap to only eight points, but the purple and white refused to lose momentum and a layup from Tavenier helped swing things back in Western's favour. The first half closed out with a score a 44-26 lead for the home side.
 
The Warriors stepped up in the third quarter in what ended up being the game's closest period, with each side recording 23 points. Despite the tough efforts of the Warriors, the tie quarter meant that the Mustangs maintained an 18-point lead at 67-49 heading into the fourth.
 
After a fast paced last frame, the Mustangs were able to increase their lead to a game-high 23 points, before eventually finishing things out with a 90-69 win.
 
While veterans like Morrow and Scholtes topped the scoring charts, the depth and skill the Mustangs have with this year's recruiting class was also apparent in the win, with rookies Nikola Farkic and Ian Smart playing 20 and 15 minutes respectively in their OUA debuts.
 
"We thought we had a very good recruiting class coming in" said Campbell. "We have rookies that can make an immediate contribution. We have one to four rookies that can probably get some minutes for us this year. That bodes very well for this year's depth and for the future"
 
The Mustangs continue their season on the road at Laurier on Saturday, November 7 at the Athletic Complex Gym. Tip-off is at 3 p.m. and can be watched live on OUA.tv.