LONDON, ON - The Western Mustangs improved to 4-2 on the season, after an overpowering victory against the Nipissing Lakers the Mustangs walked away with a 41-point lead at Alumni Hall on Saturday night.
The Mustangs' impressive win over Nipissing began with intense pressure from the Lakers defensively. They were double-teaming the Mustangs wherever they could on every pass, play, and possession in the first.
Western was also doing a good job defensively, crashing the boards to get rebounds and getting so close to their player that it seemed to have rattled the Lakers. They began to panic and made rushed shots and passes.
Both teams played incredibly fast-paced, and the Mustangs were really effective on the transition, often powering down the court so quickly that Nipissing couldn't contest the shot.
While the Lakers were holding the Mustangs out of the key and forcing them to take longer shots, Western was shooting much more accurately with 57% success in shooting compared to Nipissing's 27% with only three minutes remaining in the opening quarter.
Western held their lead the entire quarter, and after a buzzer-beating shot from Jerric Palma to end the first, the Mustangs were up 34-14.
To begin the second quarter, Western held Nipissing back with a solid full-court press that had the Lakers making rushed shots as they tried to beat the shot clock.
"We came up with a dub yesterday, right, and we knew that Nipissing was close to one last night," said Palma, "so just getting after them right from the get-go, just not letting them come back," he continued.
Western set up plays very quickly off the inbound, not giving the Lakers much time to respond. As they maintained this successful offensive strategy, they fell back to a half-court defense instead.
Nipissing was still trying to hold onto their man-on-man defense. Still, Western had a 30+ point lead in the final minutes of the half, ending the second quarter scoring over twice as many points as the Lakers, at 64-30.
"It was a short window of time, and with the turnaround that we had, our guys did a very professional job and took in the info," said Mustang Head Coach Brad Campbell, "I'm very pleased with how well we prepared for this game in a short period of time."
After a less-than-successful first half for the Nipissing Lakers, they opted to fall back to defend the key. This is where the Mustangs were more consistently putting up points.
Western still held their lead around a steady 30-point differential after out-scoring Nipissing by 13 points in the previous quarter.
"[We] just come out strong right from the jump and then keep a concise effort throughout the entire game," said Matteo Zagar, a Mustangs starting forward. "We came up with a dub yesterday, right, and we knew that Nipissing was close to one last night, so just getting after them right from the get-go, just not letting them come back," he said.
With one minute remaining in the third quarter, the Mustangs extended their lead to almost 40-points, with the scoreboard reading 83-48.
Western was strong with their offensive rebounding in this final quarter, playing just as hard as the first quarter despite holding such a vast, consistent lead.
There were several opportunities under the net for second-chance points. However, Nipissing was still intensely aggressive, trying to snatch up as many rebounds as they could, even this late in the game.
"It's gonna be great for us moving on 'cause, you know, our league is super physical. You're going to play a lot of Top-10 teams in the country," said Campbell. "The more practice our young guys can get and more exposure to that style of play, it's just going to bode well for us."
Western out-scored Nipissing by six points in this final quarter, bringing the final score for the night to 106-65 in favor of the Mustangs.
To catch the Mustang's next game, fans should tune in to OUA.tv on Friday, November 25 at 8 pm to see them take on the Ottawa Gee-Gee's in their fifth away game.
