LONDON, Ont. - Fourth-year guard Laura Graham scored a team-high 12 points to help lead the Western women's basketball team in a 70-57 loss to the Brock Badgers on Saturday afternoon in Alumni Hall.

With the loss, the Mustangs drop to 1-11 on the regular season as they look ahead to the second-half of the season and remain in ninth in the OUA West division standings. The Badger's victory improves their record to 5-7 as they remain their fourth-place position in the OUA West.

Graham, who's been Western's most consistent scoring option this season, added four rebounds and a pair of steals to her total in the game while Emma Johnson also scored in double figures, putting up 11 points and five rebounds in the loss.

Brock was led by point guard Melissa Tatti who scored a game-high 14 points and collected a pair of steals in the victory, contributing on both sides of the ball.

After a slow offensive start from both sides, it was Western's first-year guard, Nelli Larjava, who kicked off the scoring for the purple and white in the opening frame to give the Mustangs the early lead. Western's defence, which had been a weak point for them earlier this season, looked locked in throughout the first quarter, holding Brock to just 27.8 FG%, but an offensive drought of their own left them with a slim 13-12 lead heading into the second quarter.

The fast break seemed to reignite the Mustang offence to begin the second frame, but strong ball movement in Brock's half court offence kept the game neck and neck early in the quarter. However, Western soon ran out of gas and struggled to find similar opportunities in the half court setting, suffering a trio of shot clock violations as Brock began to extend their lead. The Badgers soon found their footing from behind the arc while forcing the Mustangs into turnovers on the other end of the floor to stroll into halftime with a 30-21 lead.

The consistent ball movement from Brock remained dialed in to kick off the second half, as Melissa Tatti continued to facilitate the Badgers' offence. However, as the quarter wore on, both teams seemed to struggle to find the bottom of the net. The quality shots were few and far between for both teams to end the frame as Western eventually found themselves heading into the fourth quarter facing a 51-37 deficit.

Shot clock violations continued to haunt the Mustangs into the final quarter of play, as the Badgers' defence denied the purple and white at every turn. The rest of the fourth was much of the same for Western as they continued to battle until the final buzzer, but ultimately fell in a 70-57 loss.

The Mustangs will be back in action 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 6:00 P.M. EST and fans can catch all the action live on OUA.tv.