WATERLOO, ON - Western faced the Waterloo Warriors for the second night in a row, this time taking them on at their home court on the Carl Totzke Court, falling shy at 70-65 in their attempt to extend the win streak.
The Mustangs started the game, gaining control right from the jump. However, they followed this up by missing four consecutive shots, while Waterloo opened, scoring seven unanswered points in 2 minutes. Western managed to put their first score on the board with a free throw by Aaron Tennant with 7:30 remaining in the first quarter. While the pace picked up a little, the Mustangs struggled to close the gap, with the score at the end of the first 10 being 11-19 with the Warriors in the lead.
The beginning of the second quarter showed more promise, as Omar Shiddo scored the first points of the quarter, draining a 3, followed closely by two free throws by forward Ukasha Khan, bringing the Mustangs within 3 points of Waterloo. A successful jump shot from guard Tyson Dunn resulted in the Warriors calling a timeout in an attempt to disrupt the consistent flow of power coming from the Mustangs in the first 5 minutes of this quarter. This strategy didn't seem to have much of the intended impact as less than a minute later, the Mustangs were able to tie the game, 22 apiece, thanks to a shot made by Shiddo. From here till the siren signaled halftime, the Mustangs gave Waterloo a run for their money, causing a back-and-forth resulting in Western being up by 1 point at halftime (36-35).
There were some problems with the consistency of calls from referees for both teams, leading to intense frustration on all sides of the court. Consequently, the pace we had seen from the Mustangs in the second quarter was disrupted, leading to Waterloo going on an 8 point scoring run. The close game that we had witnessed towards the end of the first half was no more. The Warriors managed to extend their lead to 15 points with only a few remaining minutes for this quarter. However, the Mustangs did work to cut the lead by the end of the quarter, bringing the score to 51-57 for the Warriors.
The last 10 minutes of the game remained pretty stable. The Mustangs' defense appeared to be more cohesive and more organized than in some of the earlier minutes. The intensity increased in this last quarter, with the Mustangs trying to pull together in the final minutes of the game. However, they fell just shy of beating the Warriors.
The Mustangs will now head to Thunder Bay for Friday's game against Lakehead University at 8 pm. Fans can watch live at OUA.tv.
