LONDON, Ont. - Third-year forward Julia Curran scored a game-high 16 points to help lead the Western Mustangs to their third win in a row as they defeated the Waterloo Warriors 74-44 on Wednesday evening in Alumni Hall.

"Our home court advantage was a big motivation for us. We really wanted to protect our house and we did that tonight. In our first matchup we kind of gave up once we earned the lead and tonight we made sure to never play relaxed. We played with a high tempo the entire game," said Curran.

"We were a younger team the last time we faced them. We've definitely grown a lot in terms of our offence throughout the season and our defence isn't letting anybody penetrate the paint anymore. We're a completely different team and I think that showed," said Graham on the difference between the team's blowout win tonight and their tightly contested game against the Warriors earlier this season.

With the win, the Mustangs will improve to an 11-8 record on the regular season, good enough for fourth place in the OUA West division. The Warriors' loss will drop them to 1-18 on the regular season as they will remain at the bottom of the OUA West division standings.

Curran, who's averaging 12.9 points per game for the purple and white this season, added seven rebounds to lead the team alongside Victoria Heine, playing with consistent effort on the boards.

Four other Mustangs scored in double figures for Western in the win, as Mackenzie Puklicz and Maddy Horst put up 10 and 11 points, respectively, while Heine and third-year guard Laura Graham led the way on defence while chipping in 12 points each.

Western opened the game with a clear size advantage over the smaller Waterloo lineup, and Curran took advantage early for the purple and white, scoring in the paint with ease. Despite the advantage inside, the Mustangs' offence was sloppy through most of the opening frame, however, the Warriors simply couldn't find their rhythm at any point in the quarter, shooting just 16.7 percent from the field in the quarter. Western would eventually settle into the game to end the quarter as the Mustangs went into the second frame with a 14-5 lead.

The Mustangs fed their offence through the fast break to open the second quarter, as guards Horst and Puklicz earned easy points off turnovers to grow the Western lead. Western would find consistency on offence until about midway through the frame, where the Mustangs would go through a scoring drought while the Warriors put together an offensive run to claw back into the game. Despite the rough end to the quarter, the purple and white would find themselves heading into the second half with a 30-21 lead.

Western began the second half by going back to what worked for them in the first quarter, taking advantage of their size advantage and scoring in the post. Heine led the way to open the third quarter, seemingly scoring inside with ease over the smaller Warrior defenders. The Mustangs' defence would tighten up from the second quarter, forcing Warrior shooters in contested looks and disallowing Waterloo any sustained run as the purple and white headed into the fourth with a 46-30 advantage.
 
The fourth quarter was much of the same for the Mustangs, as Waterloo failed to put together a consistent string of offensive sequences as Western cruised to a 74-44 victory.

"We were consistent in our effort throughout the night. This Waterloo team is better than a 1-18 team in terms of what they bring to the table and in terms of effort. They bring a full level of intensity and they were competitive the entire night," said Cheng, crediting the Warriors' resilience despite facing a deficit throughout the entire game.

The Mustangs will be back in action this Saturday, February 3 where they will travel to Windsor to take on the first-place Windsor Lancers in their second and final meeting of the season.

"Our approach heading into Windsor this weekend would be the same whether we won or lost. Regardless, we have to go back to practicing and working even harder. As we head towards the end of the season, it's always about working smarter. Our intensity will always be there in our work ethic and in our practices, no matter what," said Mustangs' head coach Brian Cheng on the team's approach heading into Windsor this weekend.

Saturday's game is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. and fans can catch the action live on OUA.tv.