LONDON, Ont. - Fifth-year guard Mackenzie Puklicz put up a team-high 18 points to help lead the Western Mustangs to a 64-58 victory over the Guelph Gryphons on Wednesday evening at Alumni Hall.
"We really took those two losses to heart last weekend and we needed to give our players guidance and direction on where we go from there. Sometimes after losses you can get after your players and they'll respond, but after two bad losses, it's not about the X's and O's, it's not necessarily about working harder, it's about figuring out our cause for being in the program," said Mustangs' head coach Brian Cheng on his team's bounce-back win. "I think we hit the reset button and it opened our minds and hearts to reinvesting in the team."
"The thing we worked on the most throughout the week was just sharing the ball and moving quicker. We focused on getting easier looks at the basket and I definitely think that happened today," said Puklicz on the adjustments made coming into tonight. "We were just there for each other and we didn't give up after those losses last weekend."
With the win, the Mustangs improve to an 8-7 record on the season as they remain firmly in fourth place in the OUA West division. The Gryphons' loss will drop them to 6-9 on the season, they remain seated behind the purple and white in fifth place.
Both teams looked to attack the paint early in the first quarter, with Western holding the clear height advantage despite the loss of Victoria Heine due to injury. The Mustangs found success early through the offence of #Julia Curran and Mackenzie Puklicz, both of whom fought through contact in the paint to earn their way to the foul line. However, despite the consistent shooting, a scrappy Gryphons team would keep the game within reach as the purple and white headed into the second quarter with a 19-14 advantage.
The red-hot shooting quickly cooled off for Western to begin the quarter, but strong defence and good shot selection from Laura Graham would help get the Mustangs back on track. Yet, fatigue looked to play a factor midway through the quarter, as the Western offence became stagnant while turnovers began to pile up for the Mustangs, allowing the Gryphons to quickly cut into the lead as Western went into halftime facing a 28-27 deficit.
"It's a quicker turn around from the Saturday game and it usually takes a couple days to feel better after, so a Wednesday game threw us off a bit as our first of the season at home. It was definitely different for us," said Puklicz on how fatigue effected the team's performance in the second frame.
The third quarter opened with Guelph attacking the paint while Curran did all she could to keep the Mustangs within striking distance. Horst's disruptive play on the defensive end of the floor was the fuel for her offence throughout the third, as her jump shot began to fall with regularity. Despite the strong play of Horst, porous defence from the purple and white would disallow a sustained Mustang run as Western went into the fourth down 49-45.
Western went back to feeding the post early in the fourth, an area they found success in throughout the opening frame while switching to a zone defence on the other end, hoping to throw off the opposing offence. The aggressive attack paid off early for the purple and white, as they regained a slim lead. Western continued to run a smooth offence through the midway point of the frame, breaking through Guelph's full-court press and finding easy baskets at the rim. The fast break would be the main source of offence for the purple and white for the remainder of the game, as Western simply outran Guelph on route to a 60-52 victory.
"Our goal is always to stick to the game plan, and that was the message going into the fourth quarter. We, as a coaching staff, are supposed to come up with the game plan and the tactical moves and the players are supposed to execute. When we adjusted, the players did a wonderful job of implementing the zone and limiting opportunities," said Cheng on the fourth quarter strategy. I thought we did a good job throughout the game, but those final moves were key."
The Mustangs will be back in action this Saturday, January 20 when they host the McMaster Marauders for their first meeting since last year's postseason. The game is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. and fans can catch the action live on OUA.tv.
