LONDON, ON - The Western Mustangs played their first game back at Alumni Hall of the season and extended their record to 5-0 in the season.
As the Mustangs came off their four game road-trip to begin the season, fans and family welcomed them back to Alumni Hall Friday night for their first regular season game back in London.
The Mustangs gained possession of the ball off the jump, and scored on their first possession of the night.
Both teams were tight on defense right off the bat, but Western appeared more in control of the game, and were able to cause several turnovers on Laurentian.
The Mustangs were doing well driving to the basket, putting up shots, and crashing the boards for rebounds on second chance points.
Laurentian was playing an extremely physical game tonight, which was only exacerbated by the frustration they appeared to be feeling as the Mustangs overpowered them on both ends of the court.
"We knew it would be exceptionally physical. I know they were going to be exceptionally aggressive," said Mustangs Head Coach Nate McKibbon. "They were very competitive against two ranked teams... and I thought we had some really good moments," he said.
Laurentian was sticking to a tight one-on-one defensive strategy, while Western was consistently able to overpower this in the first quarter, and they kept finding the open lane or moving the ball around to create space for an open shot.
Western's defense was also very strong in this quarter, with the players effectively switching to hold the open player as far out on the court as possible.
After a hard fought first 10, the Mustangs were up 22-15.
The second quarter started out much like the first, with Western still tight defensively, however, they did appear to start struggling more on the rebound.
Laurentian had also tightened up their defense, and were making the Mustangs fight harder to make the same plays that were successful earlier in the night.
As the first half of the game came to a close, Laurentian had outscored the Mustangs 19-12, and the score was tied at 34-34.
The third quarter opened up looking and feeling much more like the beginning of the first, with the Mustangs appearing much more in control of the game, and doing a better job on the rebound than the previous quarter.
After less than two minutes of play in the second half, the Mustangs had already improved 6-0 on the scoreboard, prompting a timeout from Laurentian to try to slow them down.
Western were able to pull ahead to hold the lead to end the third quarter up 57-42, after out scoring the Voyageurs by 15 points.
"I think it was defensive rebounding," said McKibbon, "when we missed shots we were able to get our offensive rebounds so I think literally it was just defense and offensive rebounds."
"Reconnecting was important coming off the back of the third quarter because that dictated the rest of the game emotionally, mentally, and physically" said Mustangs Guard Ariane Saumure, "if you see when your teammates are struggling or you missed a shot or had a bad play like just like kind of shake it off, have that kind of 'next play' mentality."
With a new season comes lots of changes to a team, with many key players moving on, and several new faces in the lineup, there can be some challenges when working with a new roster.
"In regards to being new to the team, I mean it's great everyone here is just fantastic, they just welcome you with open arms," said Mustangs Wing player Emily Capretta, who is in her first season on the team.
"We lost a few key players but That allowed the younger players to step up," said Saumure, "we have a lot of talent and everyone is just growing together... our team chemistry is also really good on and off the court."
Laurentian was putting lots of pressure on the Mustangs in the final quarter on defense, causing a couple turnovers and shot clock violations.
While the Mustangs opted for a half court press, the Voyageurs fell back to set up their defense down within the three-point line.
Western was still doing a great job of driving through traffic for the shot, and despite only shooting 21% from the field in the final quarter, and being out scored 17-11 in the fourth, the Mustangs held on to claim another victory in their so-far undefeated season.
As the final buzzer sounded, the Mustangs claimed the victory over Laurentian, 68-59.
The Mustangs return to Alumni Hall again tomorrow night, Saturday November 19 to face Nipissing at 6 pm. Fans can purchase tickets at WesternMustangs.ca/tickets.
