LONDON, Ont. - Coming off an 80-75 home victory over the Brock Badgers which placed them atop the OUA West standings this past Saturday, the Western men's basketball team will be back in Alumni Hall this weekend for a pair of meetings with the Algoma Thunderbirds.

The Mustangs began the new year with the ultimate momentum-victory this past weekend against a competitive Badgers team. After Brock's incredible second-half comeback effort, third-year guard Omar Shiddo put the nail in the coffin with a deep three that put Western up 78-75 with seconds remaining, where they would go on to seal the victory with free throws. The win moved the Mustangs past the Badgers in the OUA West standings, as Western now sits alone atop the division looking ahead to the rest of the season.

Now, as they continue their home stand, the purple and white will be looking to distance themselves further from the rest of the pack with a pair of wins over the Algoma Thunderbirds this weekend. Unlike Western, Algoma has struggled to string together consistent wins to this point of the season, currently holding a 4-8 record and sitting in sixth-place in the OUA West division standings.

However, Algoma will be heading into Western following a pair of tightly-contested victories against the Waterloo Warriors at home this past weekend, winning by an average of just three points and moving their way up the standings in the process. Despite lacking the offensive star-power that Western boasts, it's been a relentless effort on both ends of the floor that's defined the Thunderbirds to this point in the season, as they rank second in the province in offensive rebounding, third in free throw attempts, and sit top-five in both steals and blocks, all of which point to a high-effort style of play.

While Western recently pulled out a close victory over Brock, Algoma is all too comfortable playing in tightly-contested games. Eight of the Thunderbirds' twelve games have been within a 10-point margin and seven of those ended within just a five-point margin. Algoma's grind-it-out play style can be difficult to match and can lend itself to upsets behind their disruptive defence. However, Western will be in a good place if they can slow down Algoma's forward duo of Nathan Riley and Nick Gehlen.

Riley played well in a pair of competitive losses against the purple and white last season, putting up 15 points and 11 rebounds in the first game and following it up with 16 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists the following night. This season, Riley's picked up right where he left off last year, averaging an impressive 15.4 points, 8.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 2.2 steals, and 1.4 blocks per game.

But as versatile as Riley's been, Gehlen will be the far more unknown entity entering this weekend, having sat out last season following a rookie campaign which offered him limited minutes. However, in just 18.9 minutes per game this year, Gehlen has proven to be one of Algoma's most consistent scoring options, averaging 14.2 points per game, good enough for second-most on the Thunderbirds' roster.

While Western may be heading into this weekend without their premier perimeter defender in Eriq Jenkins, who sat out last weekend with a hand injury, second-year forward Julian Walker will once again be asked to step up on both ends of the floor this weekend. This season has been somewhat of a breakout season for Walker, who currently averages 9.6 points and 6.9 rebounds per game on 59.7% shooting from the field in limited minutes. But leading the offence this weekend, as always, will once again be Shiddo.

Shiddo's impressive performance this past weekend certainly wasn't an anomaly, but rather a summary of his incredible point production to this point in the season. Scoring a team-high 19.8 points per game, Shiddo will have his work cut out for him against a Thunderbirds team which defends the three-point line exceptionally well.

But despite the competitiveness of this Algoma defence, if the rest of the season is any indication, Shiddo and the rest of the Western roster will be eager to come out of this weekend with a pair of wins to secure their position atop the OUA West division standings.