LONDON, Ont - The Lancers broke out in the final two frames on their way to a 78-72 victory over the Western Mustangs at Alumni Hall Saturday afternoon.
 
"They just kept knocking down their threes" said Greg Morrow. "We were a little late on rotations sometimes. Sometimes we messed up our defensive strategies. There was a little lapse in the third where we could have picked up our energy but it was a tough game to lose"
 
"We knew coming in that they shoot the most three's in Ontario and that's a big part of their offence," added head coach Brad Campbell. "We had to make sure that not only did we play their action properly, but we had to keep the ball out of the middle. In the third quarter we fell asleep on some things that were out fault."
 
The Mustangs record is now 9-9, keeping them in second place of the OUA West. Windsor's victory puts their record at 12-6, extending their winning streak to seven games and keeping them first place in the West. They sit six points ahead of the Mustangs going into the final weekend of regular season games.
 
Morrow and Peter Scholtes# were one-two in scoring for Western, recording 28 and 27 points, respectively. Morrow shot 56.5% from the field in the contest, followed by Scholtes at 55.5%. Tom Filgiano continued to lead the purple and white defence, grabbing eight rebounds and making seven of them on the defensive front. The Scholtes and Morrow duo registered 10 rebounds combined.
 
Four Lancers recorded double digits in Saturday's contest, with Alex Campbell contributing the most with 24 points. He was followed by Isiah Osbourne with 19 points, three of which were three-point shots, and Tyler Persaud and Mike Rocca were next with 14 and 11 points, respectively. Their defence relied largely on Campbell, who recorded nine rebounds, as well as Persaud, who had eight.
 
Although Western opened the game with six straight points, the combined efforts of Osbourne and Campbell gave the Lancers the edge throughout the rest of the first frame. Morrow put his name on the board with 10 of the teams 15 points in the frame while Osbourne recorded 13 for Windsor. The Lancers took the lead at the first buzzer with a score of 22-17.
 
The Mustangs strengthened their defence in the second, making more plays in the key to prevent the Lancers from making their baskets. They only allowed the Lancers to score a total of four times in the second frame, outscoring them 15-9 to take the lead at 32-31 at the end of the first half of play.
 
After only scoring nine points in the first half, Scholtes was determined to keep the Mustangs close in the second, scoring the first nine points in the third frame before Morrow eventually contributed eight points. Western would catch up from a seven point deficit, tying the game at 45-45, altohugh the Lancers pushed late to end the frame up 54-50.
 
Despite adding four three-point shots in the final frame to try to decrease their deficit, Western couldn't close the gap, and Osbourne sealed the deal with a dunk at the buzzer to close out the game at 78-72.
 
"This team fights and we're not laying down- we're not going to give up or quit in any manner," said Campbell. "I know our guys are high-character guys and they're going to fight. They believe they can win and they're going to keep going right until the end, and that's the way we're going to play."
 
"We're going to fight till the end, that game wasn't over until the time ran out," added Morrow. "I thought we just came short, a couple shots didn't go in for us, a couple of defensive rotations, a couple of strategies that we have to go over and get better at. I thought we put forth a good effort, it was just a tough loss for us."
 
The Mustangs final two games of the season are scheduled at home starting with the Lakehead Thunderwolves on Friday, February 26 at Alumni Hall. Tip-off is at 8 p.m. and can be watched live at OUA.tv.