LONDON, ON - The energy was intense at Alumni Hall on Wednesday night as the Mustangs fought to come back from over a 20-point deficit to single digits in their loss to the McMaster Marauders.

It had been a year since the Mustangs faced the Marauders in Hamilton and were narrowly defeated at 72-71, so both teams were anxious to face-off and fight hard for this win. 


Western began on defense, and were holding a tight zone, putting pressure on their opponent up high and were consistently taking up space in the key forcing outside shots.


McMaster on the other hand was moving the ball down the court quickly on the transition, often lobbing the ball to an open player already in the frontcourt. They were also holding the Mustangs to a half-court press, forcing them into the outer lanes to set up.


Western was struggling to put points up throughout the quarter, and they were out-scored 20-08 in the opening seven minutes of the game.


McMaster was making use of an open player as they cut through Western's zone to create space and put up consistently steady shots.


As the majority of Western's scoring in this first quarter came from free throws, it was hard for them to pull together many points, and the opening 10 minutes came to an end with only two successful shots from the field, and a score of 30-09.


Despite a rough start to the game, this quarter started much stronger for the Mustangs through the opening minutes. Western was pulling down more rebounds while remaining more aggressive than the first.

The Mustangs were playing powerfully at the beginning of the quarter, and had held the Marauders down to only seven points in the first six minutes of the quarter. 
 

While UWO were doing a better job of taking up space in the paint, McMaster managed to pull ahead once again, but only out scored Western by six points in this quarter.


As the second half started, the Mustangs were trailing 52-25, but the crowd was really getting into it, with members of the Mustangs Football team in attendance, they especially were hyping up every successful Mustangs play.


In the opening minutes of the third, Western had already out-scored Mac, and were much more powerful offensively. The Mustangs were fighting hard defensively, pulling down many more rebounds, and were moving much quicker to create space on offense.


"When we got into the room [at halftime], we knew we reached rock-bottom, we knew we couldn't have done worse and it showed," said Mustangs Guard, Jerric Palma. "It was a collective effort but the energy was there - we just played with our hearts in the second half." 
 

With less than five minutes remaining in the third quarter, Western had really stepped it up since the first half, and they had held McMaster to single digit scoring so far in the second half, out-scoring them 15-09. 

 

The energy remained consistently high from the crowd, and as on-court tensions had both teams fired up, each side was in the bonus with four minutes remaining in the quarter. 

 

An electric third quarter was capped off by an incredible 3-point shot from Imran Armstrong from half-court which sent the crowd into a frenzy, and pushed the Mustangs into scoring 30-points in the third quarter alone. 

 

"Just to have the home crowd scream and cheer for us, it's good to have their support," said first-year Guard for Western, Imran Armstrong. "It started with the bench effort, just hearing them cheer and chanting 'defense' just the extra effort plays got us really going," he continued. 

 

As the third quarter came to a close Western had brought the lead back within reach, and the score was 71-55 in McMaster's favour. 

 

In the opening four minutes of the final quarter, the Mustangs had put up twice as many points as their opponent, sinking 10 points while holding Mac down to only five. 

 

The margin that was once over 20 points had now been slashed to single digits as the Mustangs had really turned the game around from their slow first half, and were now dominating the final quarter. 

 

"We basically no-showed that first half," said Mustangs Head Coach, Brad Campbell. "We have a bit of a habit of doing that, maybe in a quarter or so and how that's unacceptable... just constantly playing from behind - halftime was kind of just refocusing." 

 

While McMaster had started to cut into the momentum that Western was building, neither team slowed down or backed off and with just under four minutes remaining, the Mustangs were down 81-69. 

 

It was an incredibly energetic game, with both teams continuing to push each other and what once was an overpowering lead for the Marauders had been cut down to a two-possession game. 

 

The final 30 seconds of the game were an absolute nail-biter, with the crowd barely staying in their seats, and both sides giving any and all energy they had left. 

 

With 13 seconds remaining in the night, the Mac lead was only at five points, and despite pushing through and playing an entirely different second half than the first, Western was unable to overcome the challenges of the first two quarters and they fell to the Marauders, 88-82. 

 

The Mustangs will return to Alumni Hall in their first and only regular season matchup against the York Lions on Saturday night at 8 pm. Fans can purchase their tickets at WesternMustangs.ca/Tickets.