LONDON, ON - The Mustangs were welcomed back to Alumni Hall for the first time in 2022, after a 2-month long break, defeating the McMaster Marauders, 93-74. 

Following a turnover off the jump, the Mustangs opened scoring tonight with a successful 3-point shot from Jerric Palma. This was the beginning of intense and aggressive back-and-forth scoring between the two teams. 

The Marauders held a strong zone defence for the majority of the first half, forcing the Mustangs to take shots from beyond the arc. This tactic, however, wasn't a problem for Western, who were able to convert four 3-point shots on eight attempts in the first quarter alone.  

The two-month break in the season was unprecedented and undoubtedly affected the team. 

"We want to make sure we use our practice times to stay sharp and avoid any slippage that happened during the break," said Aryan Sharma, Mustangs Forward. "We want to fix some of the turnovers we had today, some of them were unforced, and we just want to make sure that we're ready for what [McMaster] throws at us." 

Sharma was the Mustangs' top scorer of the night, totaling an impressive 24 points in 24 minutes on the court. 

When there was a gap in McMaster's defence, the Mustangs were quick to capitalise, especially when making offensive rebounds. Western also gave the Marauders several opportunities to do the same. McMaster was more efficient at converting the offensive rebounds to points, 12 times compared to Western's 5. 

"Our defence needs to get better, we really need to improve on our defensive rebounding... we are playing young guys, and with the stoppages and lack of practice, we had to do a lot of stuff on the fly," said Mustangs Head Coach Brad Campbell. 

Before preparing for Saturday's game against McMaster on their turf, Julian Walker echoed his teammate Sharma's remarks, stating, "we just want to play tighter, clean up the turnovers and come out just as strong, because it's hard to beat a team back to back." 

Walker made the most rebounds for the Mustangs tonight with a total of 8, noting that heading into the game, they were "looking for a win. Get the new year off on a good start. Set the tone for the rest of the season". 

The Mustangs will play their next game this Saturday, February 12, against McMaster, in Hamilton at 3 pm. Fans can watch live at OUA.tv.