LONDON, Ont - Five Mustang players recorded double digits as Western defeated the York Lions 81-71 on Saturday night at Alumni Hall.
"The win is good. Hopefully that does some good for our confidence" said head coach Brad Campbell. "There are some things we still need to do a lot better at the end of games that still showed itself today. But we were aggressive, we caused a bunch of turnovers and we had a nice balanced effort."
"I think we're getting a little bit better at moving the ball." said Alex Coote on the team's victory. "We got a lot of teammates involved. The good thing tonight was not one or two guys who won it for us, it was everybody, a team effort."
The victory ends the Mustangs five-game losing streak, improving their record to 2-8 placing them in a tie for third with Algoma in the OUA West. The loss is York's sixth, moving their record to 2-6, and keeping them in fourth in the OUA East.
The Mustangs were led by Coote and Omar Shiddo who recorded 14 points, while Eriq Jenkins and Cam Morris contributed 11 points for the purple and white and Eric McDonald scored 10 points. Morris and Jedson Tavernier led with six rebounds, while the team collectively tallied 15 steals including five from McDonald.
Brandon Ramirez recorded a game-high 34 points for the Lions, while teammate Jayden Frederick notched 17 points and Julio Vazquez added. Ramirez led with eight rebounds while Yonathan Kristos grabbed five.
Struggling to take control to start the game, the Mustangs momentum completely shifted midway through the frame when Jenkins turned two back-to-back steals into points to propel the Mustangs into the lead. With a strengthened defence, including four steals from McDonald and an overall 64.7% success rate in field goals, the Mustangs went on a 15-4 run to finish the frame with a 27-12 lead.
The Lions refused to back down and tightened their defensive game, grabbing 10 rebounds in the second quarter to prevent the Mustangs from extending their lead. Led by Frederick who sunk nine of the teams 19 points in the frame, the Lions tied the Mustangs in scoring in the frame, but Western led 46-31 after the first two quarters.
Coote made an impression on the court in the third, scoring eight points to keep the Mustangs in the lead. However, the Lions began to connect with their plays, eventually closing to within four points before the Mustangs answered back and ended the third frame up 65-54.
The two teams traded baskets in the fourth, with the Lions holding a slight 17-16 advantage, but the Mustangs closed things out with an 81-71 win.
"We've got to build, we got to take what we learned from this game. It's always nice to teach some things in a win other than a loss." said Campbell. "We've had a lot of close games where we didn't close out in the fourth quarter and we have to get over the hump, we have to learn."
The Mustangs hit the road to face the Windsor Lancers on Wednesday, January 11 at the St. Denis Centre. Tip-off is at 8 p.m. and can be watched live on OUA.tv
