WATERLOO, Ont. - Fourth-year guard Laura Graham poured in 17 points to go along with five rebounds, four steals, and a pair of blocks in Western's 54-45 road loss to the Waterloo Warriors on Wednesday evening.

With the loss, the Mustangs drop to 5-18 on the season as they fall into ninth place in the OUA West division standings. The Warriors' win improves their record to 6-17 on the year, placing them in seventh in the OUA West division with one game remaining on the regular season schedule.

Maddy Horst also had an impressive showing for the purple and white in the loss, as she matched Graham's 17 points and added seven rebounds to help the cause.

Waterloo's offence was carried by Beth Howlett and Hilary Ferguson, who each scored a team-high 14 points to help carry the team to victory.

But despite Graham and Horst's offensive efforts, a slow start through the opening two quarters of the play left the Mustangs scrambling heading into the second half. The purple and white were mainly hindered by 13 first-half turnovers which derailed the Mustangs' half-court offence. Western played relatively disciplined perimeter defence through the first half, but an inability to score with consistency left them trailing 27-17 heading into the third.

The Mustangs' effort coming out of the half was impressive and, in many ways, a stark contrast to the sloppy play of the first half. Western nearly won the quarter and followed it up with a strong effort throughout the entire fourth quarter. However, the comeback effort proved to be too little, too late as Graham and Horst could only do so much for the purple and white down the stretch, leading to the eventual 54-45 loss.

The Mustangs will be back in action this Saturday, February 16, where they will return home for a Senior Night matchup with the McMaster Marauders in Alumni Hall. The game is scheduled to tip off at 6:00 P.M. EST and fans can catch all the action live on OUA.tv.