GUELPH, ON - Western faced off against the Gryphons in the second last game of the regular season, and fell on the road 76-64.
The Mustangs made it to their final road game of the regular season in Guelph, coming off a tough loss in their previous match against Brock in London on Saturday night they headed into tonight's match ready to fight hard.
Throughout the first half of the night, the Mustangs and Gryphons were locked in an evenly-matched fight. Western briefly held a lead in the opening minutes of the night, before Guelph came back and pressed hard against the Mustangs to hold a lead throughout the rest of the quarter.
By the end of the opening ten minutes, Western had turned the possession over seven times, whereas Guelph had only given the Mustangs three turnovers.
Despite this the game was still very close at the end of the first quarter, with the Mustangs barely trailing the home team, down 18-14.
The entire Mustang team were working as a cohesive unit to make some intense, steady scoring plays.
This quarter has remained pretty steady, with both teams increasing the points on the board but at an incredibly similar pace, and with six remaining the Mustangs had managed to slice the Guelph lead back down to two points with four minutes remaining.
Defensively, Western was allowing several rebounds from the Gryphons under the Mustang's basket in a row, giving the home side many additional chances to score.
Western was clearly playing a much more solid, steady game than earlier on, which helped them out score Guelph in this quarter. While the Mustangs were dominating and taking up space in the paint, holding the Gryphons out forcing shots from deep, Guelph managed to take the lead back momentarily with two minutes remaining, before the Mustangs pulled back up to seal the lead at the end of the quarter up 40-39.
In the opening minutes of the third quarter, Western extended their lead by out-scoring the home team and holding them scoreless until beyond the two minute mark of the quarter.
With six minutes remaining in the quarter however, the Mustangs' lead had been closed to one point as Guelph came back fighting with passion.
While the 'Stangs were holding tight in control on defense, Guelph took over for the lead with an impressive three-point shot with four minutes remaining. The game had been held within a couple points since the half, as the Gryphons were making the most of the Mustangs' weaknesses and turnovers.
While the Mustangs had managed to hold up the lead to end the quarter, they had only out-scored their opponent by one point since the start of quarter, heading into the final ten up 57-55.
It was a rough final quarter once again for Western, as the Gryphons were able to adapt from the Mustangs overpowering them defensively in the previous two quarters.
The top of the quarter passed by and the Mustangs had been held down to only three points, being out-scored 10-03 in the first five minutes.
As the Gryphons absolutely surpassed the Mustangs in scoring, going up 11 for their largest lead since the first quarter, Western was still fighting hard on defense and using all the energy they had left to try close the gap.
Unfortunately, as the game came to a close Western were not able to bring the game back into their control and ultimately fell to Guelph 76-64.
Western will play in their final regular season game back at Alumni Hall in London, this Saturday night, February 18th at 6 pm against the Laurier Golden Hawks.
