LONDON, ON - The Western Mustangs had a hard-fought battle against the Lakehead Thunderwolves, and unfortunately during their Friday night matchup, they fell short of collecting the win, down by 13 points. 

Friday night's game opened with intense physicality between these two evenly matched teams. This energy was carried throughout the entire night. 

The Mustangs were excellently pulling down rebounds and making strong defensive plays, keeping Lakehead out of the paint. 

It was a close game from the start, with both teams maintaining a tight margin throughout the first quarter. While both teams were tied at three points each, three minutes into the quarter, Western had managed to power ahead over the next few minutes to hold an 11-03 lead. 

Western was effectively communicating with each other and was doing an excellent job of predicting the play and getting ahead of the ball, allowing them to cause several turnovers and maintain a steady lead, with the first quarter of play ending with the Mustangs in the lead 26-18. 

"Physical games, they are what they are - they are a top 10 team in the Country for a reason. They're going to be physical," said Mustangs Forward Aryan Sharma. "We just have to match their physicality, and we can't complain, that's what we live for." 

Lakehead opened the second quarter much stronger, scoring on their opening few possessions. However, the Mustangs were very effective at steadily moving the ball down the court to put up shots consistently. 

Western was overpowering Lakehead in the paint throughout the second quarter, putting 16 points on the board from within the key while holding the Thunderwolves down to only two from the same area. 

 Lakehead managed to pull ahead to grab the lead back with four minutes remaining. Right up to the end of the first half, both teams played an extremely physical game, with neither team giving up a single point without a fight. 

"It was physical, and we struggled with it at times for sure," said Mustangs' Head Coach Brad Campbell. "It's a young team, we've had some trouble with the physical play, and it's a good experience for us, and hopefully, it'll pay off later on," he continued. 

As the first half came to a close, the Mustangs followed closely behind the Thunderwolves with a score of 52-45. 

The third quarter started slowly for the Mustangs, who didn't seem to be playing with quite the same control and power as seen throughout the first half. 

Both teams held each other away from scoring throughout the first few minutes of play, with each team only having scored two points since the end of the first half. 

As the third quarter progressed, the Mustangs seemed much more in control of the game - they were strong on defense. They set up offensive plays that allowed them to put up more consistent shots and draw fouls off Lakehead. 

Western's strength defensively was on display throughout the third quarter, with the Mustangs forcing Lakehead to take rushed shots further out in the field to avoid turnovers and shot-clock violations. 

With less than two minutes remaining in the third quarter, the Mustangs had successfully shortened their 10-point deficit down to one point, which Western had turned into one point lead to end the quarter up 69-68. 

As the final quarter began, the game was intense yet again, with both teams and their respective benches becoming very vocal as the game was nearing its conclusion. 

The teams were trading the lead back and forth with one another, with the match remaining incredibly physical, as it had been since the start. 

"We knew last week, and this week we were going against one of the top teams in the country," said Western Guard Jerric Palma. "We knew that we were there, we're better than them; it's just about getting better going into tomorrow's game," he continued. 

The Mustangs had only been out-scored in the second quarter of the game. Still, unfortunately, that differential was significant enough to have allowed the Thunderwolves to stay in the game. 

Lakehead began to pull ahead and gain a more significant lead. With two minutes remaining, they pulled ahead to an eight-point lead. As the game ended, the Mustangs had fallen just shy of the win, as the night's final score was 98-85.