LONDON, Ont – Despite a strong fourth quarter comeback from the Mustangs, the Queen's Gaels bounced back in the later stages of the frame to take a 75-69 win over Western on Friday night at Alumni Hall.
"Mostly in the first three quarters we had trouble making shots. Defensively, we had some lapses, in particular with some of their three-point shooters" said head coach Brad Campbell. "I don't think we defensive rebounded very well, the offensive rebounds that they got they punished us with points on either three's or easy twos."
"We rebounded a little better, we started helping more on [defence] and helping each other out" said Eric McDonald on the Mustangs comeback early in the fourth quarter. "We didn't really do anything special, we just did what we were supposed to do."
"Omar gave us a bunch of shot-making from three, he was electric in the fourth. Some silly fouls and lack of rebounding hurt us down the stretch in that fourth quarter" said Campbell.
The loss updates the Mustang record to 1-8 keeping them in a tie for fourth place with Waterloo in the OUA West Division standings, while the Gaels record moves to 6-1 placing them in a tie for second with the Toronto Varsity Blues in the OUA East.
The Mustangs were led by Omar Shiddo who recorded 21 points while Eric McDonald and Eriq Jenkins recorded 12 and 10 points for the team. Jenkins led the team's rebounding efforts with 10 to record the double-double.
Sukhpreet Singh and Tanner Graham led the Gaels with 16 and 14 points respectively. Teammate Richard Iheadindu contributed 12 points for the Gaels while Isse Ibrahim scored 10 to round out the Queen's players hitting double digits. Ibrahim and Graham also made an impact on the boards, with both grabbing eight rebounds apiece.
After Queen's jumped out to an 11-point lead through the first seven minutes of play, the Mustangs closed the gap in the final few minutes of the quarter. Coote contributed five points for the purple and white in those final minutes including hitting a layup followed by a last-second three to close out the opening quarter with Queen's up 13-11.
Both teams built momentum for the second frame increasing the pace and scoring after a low-scoring first frame. Graham made an impression on the court scoring eight points for the visitors while multiple Mustangs hit the board to keep up to their competitors. The Gaels slightly increased their lead, taking a 38-33 advantage into the half, one they'd extend to 56-50 after the third quarter.
The Mustangs stormed back in the fourth, going on a 14-4 run to start the frame, eventually taking their first lead of the game at 64-62 on a three pointer from Shiddo. Queen's responded to the Mustangs surge with a mini-run of their own, outscoring the Mustangs 13-5 for the remainder of the quarter to escape with a 75-69 win.
"Tonight was one of our better nights with shooting the three. Another big part of this game and moving forward is we have to find ways to get to the free throw line and make some free throws." said Campbell. "We can do some of these very little things. We're going to get over the hump and close out some of these games."
The Mustangs return to Alumni Hall on Saturday night to face the York Lions. Tip-off is at 8 p.m. and can be watched live on OUA.tv.
