LONDON, Ont. - Third-year guard Omar Shiddo scored a game-high 24 points and knocked down an incredible game-winning shot to help lift the Western men's basketball team to a 80-75 victory over the Brock Badgers on Saturday afternoon in Alumni Hall.

With the win, the Mustangs improve their record to 8-4 on the season and sit atop the competitive OUA West division standings. The Badgers' loss drops their record to 7-5 on the season, falling into third place in the OUA West division in the process.

"This was obviously a big win for us in a lot of ways," said Mustangs head coach Brad Campbell. "It puts us in first place in our division, which is nice, but now we have to be even sharper because every team is going to have us circled on their calendar. We're the target, but we're ready to play with those expectations."

"We're happy to be on top of our division right now and we know we deserve to be there," said Shiddo. "Now we just have to keep executing and make sure we stay there."

Despite Shiddo's late-game heroics, he wasn't the only Mustangs to score in double-figures for the purple and white, as Julian Walker put up an impressive 21 points and seven rebounds on the day while Aryan Sharma added 10 points in the win.

"We have a lot of guys that have played big time roles for us this season like Aaron [Tennant] and Julian and all their work payed dividends for us tonight," said Shiddo. "We have a deep team and a ton of talent, so it was good to see that come together today even though we didn't always play our most disciplined basketball. We needed guys to step up and they did."

Walker, who's come into his own this season for the purple and white, led the way early for Western's offence to begin the game, earning the Mustangs the early lead against one of the OUA's best defences. Western's own defensive versatility proved to be the catalyst behind their early lead, as Aaron Tennant led the way with his interior presence to help lift the purple and white to the 19-12 lead heading into the second quarter.

However, the Badgers' speed lent itself to fast break opportunities early in the second quarter, as they cut into the Mustang lead and earned easy chances at the rim. But despite the run-and-gun offence early on in the quarter, Brock's pace would eventually slow and when it did, the Western defence seemed to regain its footing and lock down on the interior once again, holding their opponent to just 38.7 FG% in the half and heading into halftime with a 39-26 lead.

The third quarter was dominated by Brock throughout the opening minutes, as the once-stifling Western defence looked porous on the interior to kick off the second half. Following a Brock scoring run, Western eventually saw their lead shrink down to just six points midway through the frame as the Badger's threatened to take over. However, a pair of threes from Shiddo would keep the Western lead alive as they went into the fourth with a 58-54 lead.

Brock began to find their footing from beyond the arc in the final quarter of play, but the constant energy and offensive discipline from Walker helped keep the purple and white afloat midway through the frame. However, a string of long-range shots from the Badgers allowed Brock to take the slim lead with just minutes remaining in the game, leading to a clutch lay in from Marko Kovac to eventually tie the game at 75-75 apiece with a less than minute remaining. After a staunch defensive possession gave Western the ball back, Shiddo then nailed a clutch three with 18 seconds left to play on the ensuing possession to give the purple and white the 78-75 lead, where Brock would foul once more to give Western the eventual 80-75 home victory.

"It's a shot I work on all the time in practice and my teammates trust me, so I knew it was the right shot to take in that moment," said Shiddo. "They were pressuring me all game long, but that's what's going to happen against great teams and this is the type of team we'll be playing against later this year. It was a great learning experience for us to go up against that kind of pressure."

"Obviously Omar's play stands out, but all those rebounds, steals, and shots led to this win, including Marko's final layup," said Campbell. "We were getting outplayed in that second half and this certainly wasn't our best basketball, but all those little victories added up for us in the end. Omar's shot was huge and that's what he does, but we just had to keep believing that we were the better team leading up to that play."

The Mustangs will be back this Friday, January 11, where they will host the Algoma Thunderbirds in Alumni Hall for what will be their first meeting of the season. The game is scheduled to tip off at 8:00 P.M. EST and fans can catch all the action live on OUA.tv.