LONDON, Ont. - Second-year guard Omar Shiddo put up a game-high 29 points to go along with five rebounds in the Western Mustangs 89-72 OUA Quarter-final loss to the Windsor Lancers on Saturday afternoon in Alumni Hall.

"We wish we could've ended our season on a better note, but unfortunately this is the way it worked out," said Mustangs' head coach Brad Campbell after the team's upset loss. "We took a nice step forward this year and we need to look at how we're going to take another step forward next season. We're going to use this game and the way we feel now as motivation to make sure this doesn't happen again next year."

Western found themselves up against a veteran Windsor team in a rivalry playoff matchup which has remained heated throughout the season. The Mustangs held the higher seed coming into the game and showed why early in the first quarter, locking down on the defensive end while Henry Tan orchestrated the offence to perfection despite the absence of point guard Nikola Farkic.

Farkic, who missed the game with an injury, ranked second in the OUA in both assists and steals throughout the regular season, helping to lead the Mustangs on both ends of the floor.

"It's a big blow to be missing Nik in a game like this. He really runs our offence as a pass-first point guard, so it really hurts to not have him out there. Our offence just doesn't flow as well without him," said fourth-year forward Jedson Tavernier on Farkic's absence.

"Losing him really hurts us. He's second in the league in assists and steals and he's a guy who gets other people shots while doing a nice job defensively for us as well. We needed other guys to step up and give us contributions and they did, but he was a huge loss for us," said Campbell.

???????Shiddo carried the scoring load early in the first without the offensive contributions of Farkic, as he knocked down a pair of threes to extend the Western lead while the Mustangs' help-defence would hold off the Lancers' scoring attack. However, a dry-spell in the offence would allow Windsor to chip away at Western's lead as the purple and white went into the second frame with a slim 21-16 lead.

The Lancers came out of the gate with a quick 6-2 run, pushing the pace, outrunning the Mustangs, and chipping into the Western lead. Windsor continued to force the purple and white into contested midrange shots as Lancer point guard Mike Rocca picked apart the Mustangs on both ends of the floor to earn Windsor a slight lead.

Western's fast break would keep them in the game throughout the half, but Rocca would continue to be a thorn in the Mustangs' side, maintaining his pesky defence while finding his stroke from beyond the arc. Shaky interior defence and an eight-point quarter from the offence of the purple and white would leave them facing a 38-29 deficit heading into halftime.

Former Lancer Marko Kovac led the way in the third quarter for the purple and white in an early comeback effort. It was the fast break which sparked the offence early for the Mustangs, beating the Lancers at their own game and dictating the pace with consistent energy. A pair of contested threes from Shiddo late in the quarter would bring the Mustangs within striking distance, but a buzzer beating three from the Lancers would push their lead to 66-61 heading into the fourth.

Windsor got back to controlling the pace early in the fourth quarter, running the fast break and extending their lead to open the frame. The Mustangs struggled to find their flow while the Lancers' perimeter shots began to fall with regularity against a Western defence which simply looked too fatigued to challenge. Ultimately, Windsor would deny a final Western comeback with staunch defence on route to an 89-72 victory and a birth to the OUA Semifinals.

The afternoon marked the final game in the purple and white for seniors Tavernier and Tan as well as Cam Morris, who was not in attendance due to season-ending surgery.

"Jedson has been just an outstanding human being in our program and somebody who just put immense work in throughout the offseason. He's done whatever we asked him to do. He's been an outstanding student and community member around Western as well as a basketball player. I have no doubt he'll move onto bigger and better things and do outstanding things in his career," said Campbell on Tavernier's contribution to the Western program. "Obviously Henry was just with us for one season and he'll be graduating this year as well, while Cam Morris unfortunately couldn't be with us today as he recovers from surgery, but we've gotten huge contributions from all our seniors."

With the loss, the Mustangs will end their season in the OUA Quarter-finals as the Lancers will move on to the OUA Semifinals set for this coming Wednesday.

"I think this whole season was a big step forward for us. We've had a couple down years in recent history, but this year we really got ourselves back to the top of OUA contention, so I think next year is just going to be another step forward as the program keeps building," said Tavernier on the future of this young Western roster.

"This team can definitely go far next year. We have a lot of young and up and coming guys, so I feel if they continue to work hard and play within the system then they can definitely go even further next season," said Tan.