LONDON, Ont – After a hard-fought battle, the Western Mustangs came back to take the lead in the final minute of the fourth quarter on their way to a 62-59 win over the No. 7 Ryerson Rams on Saturday night at Alumni Hall.
 
 "We thought we played poorly, particularly offensively, last night, and to bounce back to get an ugly win is great" said coach Brad Campbell. "Hopefully we can build on that, confidence-wise, for our guys. To keep scrapping, staying in the game and giving ourselves a chance to win - we were able to do that tonight." 
 
"We were very low on confidence on making shots and open shots, so it was nice in that first quarter to bang a few of those down and hopefully made our guys feel good and gave us a little confidence. We had a bit of a rough patch there in the third quarter, especially struggled with too many turnovers, and then our defence kept holding us in it and we were able to make a few shots down the stretch to ice things out."
 
The win gives Western a 2-2 record early in the season, while the Rams fall to 1-1 with the loss.
 
The Mustangs were led by 10 points from Henry Tan, alongside Eriq Jenkins, Nikola Farkic, and Omar Shiddo, who all scored nine points each. Damiann Prehay led the team's rebounding efforts, pulling down seven boards on the night.
 
Myles Charvis led the Rams with a strong performance, recording 23 points, while Filip Vujadinovic also had a notable statline, finishing with eight points and seven rebounds.  
 
Ryerson came out with a strong full court press to start things off, but Western responded well, opening up the front court to hit some quick threes. The Mustangs continued their barrage to shoot 6-11 from beyond the arc, and ended the first quarter with a 22-11 lead.
 
Western changed up their offensive approach with the second quarter, playing more aggressively on the inside. They continued a strong effort on the defensive side, and held off a Ryerson run to lead 32-27 at halftime.
 
The third quarter began with a back and forth exchange as each team swapped buckets. As the quarter progressed, Ryerson began to close the gap and settle into a lead. Mustang turnovers led to a Rams run, and enabled Ryerson to establish a consistent scoring rhythm, concluding the quarter with a 47-43 lead.
 
The final frame continued to be a tightly-knit affair, with the Mustangs keeping within single digits. However, the Mustangs dug deep and clawed back to overcome the deficit and tie the game in the final minute at 59-59 apiece. Six consecutive points by Shiddo in the last seconds helped push the Mustangs to a 62-59 win.

The Mustangs will be back in action on Friday, November 10, when they host the Windsor Lancers at Alumni Hall. Game time is set for 8 p.m.