WATERLOO, ON - The Mustangs dominated the Laurier Golden Hawks in their first meeting this season, as they pulled off a 17 point victory on the road.

Coming off a close-call victory on Tuesday night, the Mustangs headed into their Friday night game ready to score another win on the road. 

The Mustangs won the opening tip, and while the game started a bit slow on offense, with the first handful of their shots being blocked or missed without a rebound, Western soon started to warm up a bit more. After the first 3 minutes of play, the Mustangs became more consistent.

The Golden Hawks were strong on defense from the start, swarming the Mustangs at every opportunity, making it very difficult for Western to move the ball for an open shot. This pressure from Laurier led to numerous turnovers for the Mustangs, leading to a back-and-forth with both teams fighting for possession more than they had the chance to shoot. 

With seconds remaining, a successful three-point shot from Ashley Truesdale brought the Mustangs within one point, and after Laurier made one of two free throws, the first quarter ended with Western down 14-12. 

The next quarter of play started much stronger than the first, and the Mustangs seemed more in control of the game. They were pulling down more rebounds and making the most of second-chance scoring opportunities. 

Laurier was holding up the strong defense they'd exhibited earlier in the game, but Western had adapted and was effectively holding the Golden Hawks as far out of the paint as they could while running down the shot clock. 

Despite trailing for most of the game, the Mustangs took their first solid lead on a 3-point play from Sarah Harvey in the final minutes of the second quarter.

Heading into the third quarter, Western was up by four, 33-29, and after a couple of minutes of play in the second half, the Mustangs had doubled their lead to 8, the most significant margin of the game so far. 

The Mustangs had improved upon the first quarter, having now scored 22 points in the paint alone and holding Laurier off scoring since the beginning of the third quarter. After five minutes of the second half of play, Western had secured a steady lead with a 20-0 scoring run, bringing the score to 49-29. 

After trailing the Golden Hawks throughout the first quarter, Western had their lead extended as they out-scored Laurier 21-15 in the second quarter and 21-8 in the third, heading into the final period of play up 54-37. 

Western successfully overpowered Laurier in all aspects of play over the final 10 minutes and extended their lead to 22 points (the largest of the game so far) with 6 minutes remaining. 

Laurier was still battling hard throughout the entire quarter and did not give up, which was evident through their ability to slow the Mustangs from out-scoring them by such large margins as the previous two quarters, down to a narrower 5-point differential with five minutes remaining. 

The Mustangs secured another win for the season, ending the game up 70-53, with Sarah Harvey leading the team with 22 points. 

Western will play again on Friday, November 11, as they face Algoma in the first of two games that weekend in Salut St. Marie at 6 pm. Fans can tune in and watch the entire match live at OUA.tv.