LONDON, Ont. - Fourth-year guard Maddy Horst scored a team-high seven points and 11 rebounds to lead the Western women's basketball team in a 77-39 loss to the Windsor Lancers on Sunday afternoon in Alumni Hall. 

With the loss, the Mustangs drop to 5-16 on the season, as they fall into ninth place in the OUA West division standings. The Lancers' win improves their record to 15-7 on the year, as they remain in third in the OUA West heading towards the postseason. 

"We've been struggling with our offence as of late, it's hard when you're trying to experiment with new systems and new players because there's a lot of adjustments to be made," said Horst. "We're just trying to find an identity. We have a lot of young players and they're getting their minutes, but we're still in the process of trying to find everyone's role at the moment." 

"We battled hard through the first half and we had the energy to compete with them, but their size and athleticism just kept wearing on us towards the end," said Mustangs' head coach Brian Cheng. "We just don't have enough bodies right now to compete against physical teams like Windsor. All credit to them, but tonight was a game of learning and progress for our young players, much like the season has been." 

Windsor was led by Nyamuoch Teny, who put up a game-high 20 points to go along with five rebounds on the day. 

Windsor's offence came out of the gate firing to begin the first quarter, spreading the floor with their long-distance shooting and picking apart the Western zone. The purple and white eventually found their footing defensively but struggled to create similar chances on the other end of the floor to begin the frame, as the Lancers forced the purple and white into difficult shots at the end of the shot clock and built an early lead. Western cut into the lead late in the frame behind the fast break and the spark of Katie Bastedo off the bench, but the early scoring drought left the Mustangs trailing 15-7 heading into the second quarter. 

Western began the second quarter on an impressive 8-2 run, cutting into the Windsor lead and finding momentum in their half-court offence. Midway through the frame, the Mustangs' zone defence, which looked porous in the first quarter, seemed to come together and stymie the Lancers' shooters late in the half. The defensive effort left Western heading into the second half facing a slim 27-24 deficit. 

However, Western found themselves giving up the three-point shot once again to begin the second half, as Windsor began to find the holes in the Mustangs' zone and extend their lead as the quarter went on. The barrage from beyond the arc continued until the end of the frame, as Windsor extended their lead to 46-34 entering the final quarter of play. 

Despite a valiant first-half effort, the game slipped away from Western early in the fourth quarter, as Windsor began the frame on a 24-2 run to put the game to put the game out of reach. The rest of the quarter proved to be much of the same for the purple and white, as the Lancers continued to knock down threes with regularity and strolled to the eventual 77-39 victory. 

"Defensively, we held them down at first, but once they started getting their runs the game just got away from us," said Horst. "Windsor's a very tough opponent. Their athleticism is unheard of, they outwork almost every team, and it's hard to play against a team that is constantly competing. I think this season is really about teaching our young players to compete at that same level in years to come." 

"We have to continue to develop and continue to get better as individual players because this season is all about evolving," said Cheng. "It doesn't matter if we're winning or losing, we have to keep getting better and learn every step of the way." 

The Mustangs will be back in action this Wednesday, February 13, where they will travel to Waterloo to take on the Warriors in what will be their second and final 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.