Box Score OTTAWA, ON - As the Western Mustangs headed back out onto the road this weekend, they came up against the Ottawa Gee Gees, who managed to overpower them defensively, giving the Mustangs their first loss of the 2022/23 regular season.

Friday night saw the Mustangs playing their first game against Ottawa on the road at Pavillon Montpetit Hall this weekend. Both teams began the night undefeated in the regular season.

Ottawa opened the scoring, was quick on the drive, made steady passes, and had the Mustangs fighting for every possession. 

Emily Capretta scored the opening basket for Western three minutes into the game. After this, the Mustangs became more steady and composed in their play. 
The Gee-Gees made quick passes and seemed to control the ball on offense. Western was also moving fast on offense, setting strong screens up high, allowing them to create space for an open shot. 

The Mustangs were also hustling throughout the quarter and had started to gain more control over the game, despite starting the match slightly slower in putting points on the board. 
Western went on a 13-0 scoring run and dominated the rebounding, pulling down 15 versus Ottawa's eight.

With this momentum, the Mustangs were in the lead to end the first 10 minutes of the game up 19-13. 

Much like the first quarter, Ottawa opened up the remainder of the first half, seemingly in control. The Gee-Gees were placing a lot of tight, firm pressure on the Mustangs while being powerful on the glass, making it challenging for Western to put up many shots. 

Ottawa opened this quarter, returning the Mustangs' earlier run, scoring 12 unanswered points. The first Western points of the quarter came just over three minutes into the third quarter, bringing the game back within four points. 

The Mustangs were holding a tight one-on-one defense, doing their best to force the Gee-Gees to shoot from further outside the paint. With three minutes remaining in the first half of the game, Ottawa held Western back in scoring, leading to the Mustangs scoring only one basket since the first quarter. 

Western was still fighting hard, holding their players close on defense and forcing Ottawa to take more shots from further out in the field. With two minutes remaining, the Mustangs had been having trouble making the most of their possessions. They had racked up seven turnovers compared to Ottawa, who had only given up one possession on a turnover. 

As the first half came to an end, Western had been out-scored 31-05 in the second quarter, and Ottawa was in the lead 44-24. 

Western scored the opening points of the second half, despite Ottawa coming out of the gates holding just as strong on defense as earlier in the night. 

The Mustangs were doing much better pulling down offensive rebounds this quarter and putting up second-chance points, which was the key to the game tonight, with Ottawa having pulled down 27 by the end of the match compared to the Mustangs' nine.

Western was doing much better not only on rebounding this quarter but also putting more intense pressure on the Gee-Gees down low, holding Ottawa out where possible, and putting close but legal contact on their players. 

As the third quarter came to a close, the Mustangs had been unable to recover from the second-quarter deficit, and Ottawa was in the lead 60-41. 

Sarah Harvey scored the first points for the Mustangs in the final quarter of play on the team's first possession.

Western was boxing out the Gee-Gees much more efficiently on defense than earlier in the game and was much more powerful when crashing the boards and sinking shots off of these possessions. 

The Mustangs were also doing well crowding and double-teaming the ball handler, causing them to panic and often give up the possession. 

The Mustangs had closed the gap to 14 points in two minutes. Still, unfortunately, as the game came to an end, Ottawa had secured the win, beating the Mustangs with a final score of 79-63. 


Western will be back in Ottawa tomorrow night, Saturday, November 26, facing off against the Carleton Ravens at 6 pm. Fans can tune in live at OUA.tv.