LONDON, ON - Saturday night, the Mustangs took on the Ottawa Gee-Gees in another tough match-up.

Ottawa won the jump, and drew first blood. Emily Capretta got the Mustangs on the board knocking down a contested three and then following it up with a reverse layup to score Western's first five points. 
 
The first quarter was a battle and Western went back and forth with Ottawa, matching their pace. Paris Alexander knocked down a tough reverse layup and drew the foul in the process, completing the three-point play, to put the Mustangs up 2.
 
Capretta started the quarter out strong, leading the Mustangs with 11 points out of their 16. Western also out rebounded Ottawa 15-7.
 
The Gee Gees came out hard to start the 2nd quarter, driving to the lane and applying full court pressure to slow Western's offense. MacKeely Shantz knocked a jump shot off the glass to maintain Western's lead 20-17. 
 
Ottawa's full-court pressure made it tough for the Mustangs offence to continue to score freely, and they went on a 9–0 run before Paris Alexander knocked down a free-throw to stop the bleeding. The score was 26-21 with 3:47 remaining at the half. 
 
MacKeely Shantz knocked a tough layup and drew the foul, making the layup to complete the three-point play and cut Ottawa's lead to four. Ottawa continued to apply pressure on the Mustangs offence and led 30-24 at the half. 
 
Ottawa came out strong to start the second half, forcing two consecutive shot clock violations on Western. MacKeely Shantz fought back, scoring a layup and knocking down two elbow jumpers to get the Mustangs up and running. Ottawa continued to score, lighting up the three-point line, extending their lead to 16 with 4:50 left in the quarter. 
 
Sam Cowan knocked down both free throws to end the quarter. The Mustangs trailed 53-38. 
 
Ottawa continued to score from beyond the arc in the fourth, finishing with six threes. In contrast, Western struggled from three, going 3-14 in the game, all of which were made by Emily Capretta, who finished the night with 21 points and 4 rebounds. 
 
Shantz continued to keep Western's hopes alive, driving to the lane and then knocking down consecutive free-throws to cut Ottawa's lead to 14.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough and Ottawa continued to maintain their lead, winning the game 67-54.
 
In her second game filling in for Head Coach Nate McKibbon, Meg Wilson looked at the positives from this weekend.
 
"Both games we moved the ball really well and made the extra pass. We can work on flowing into our offence a bit better, sometimes we got stuck in the corners."

Shantz finished the night with 17 points, 16 rebounds and 4 assists.
 
"We kept our effort up through both games, and did not let the score get to us." said Shantz "It's still early on and we're still learning to play with each other, so it's only up from here."

The Mustangs are now looking ahead to their next game against the York Lions on Friday, November 17, at 6 p.m. Fans can get their tickets at WesternMustangs.ca/tickets and Western students get FREE admission to all Mustangs regular season, on campus games by showing their Western ONECard.