London, ON – A rough second quarter led the Mustangs to drop their final game of the regular season on Saturday night, 90-86.
"A bit of an issue we've had all season is that we don't necessarily start out slow but we don't play maybe as desperate as we should and then we tend to be a bit a different team once we get down about ten points," said Mustangs Head Coach Brad Campbell "That kind of happened again tonight as that 2
nd quarter kind of did us in,"
The first quarter saw both sides trade chances, Western saw the biggest lead of the quarter in a 6 point cushion midway through the frame but Laurier had a pair of late quarter dunks which drew them back to even at 29-29 as the buzzer sounded to end the quarter.
The tight battle continued to start the 2nd quarter with Laurier taking the early advantage and moving up by 6. Western would respond with a 9-1 run and regain the lead near the midway point of the quarter. The back-and-forth action continued as Laurier would go on their own 13-0 run and open up their largest lead of the night at 11 points (51-40).
Both sides traded points in the third quarter with Noah Otshudi dropping six points in the quarter but Western trailed 70-62 at the break.
Western opened the fourth quarter with a 9-2 run which cut the Laurier lead down to just one point, just 2:20 into the 4
th. The final minute of regulation saw plenty of drama as Laurier would open up a seven point lead but then Tyson Dunn responded with a clutch three-pointer to cut the lead to four and then Aryan Sharma would pick up a loose ball and drop an emphatic dunk which cut the Laurier lead to two with just 30 seconds remaining.
"We were running a bit of a full court trap there and I just reacted to where the ball was going," said Sharma "So I kind of anticipated the right way there and picked up the ball and made a good play there,"
The Mustangs charge came up just a bit short as Laurier would get a pair of free throws to secure the win and hand the Mustangs a 90-86 loss to round out their regular season.
Prior to the game, the Mustangs honoured two of their graduating seniors in Ukasha Khan and Aryan Sharma, both having been with the program since 2018.
"It didn't really hit me until just now (post-game) that this was my last home game," said Sharma "Obviously before you're just focused on the game but it was great to have plenty of friends and family here tonight for it,"
Despite the loss, the Mustangs will make a playoff appearance which will start this week on the road.
"We've had a bit of a weird season this year in some ways, and part of that is we've played well against some of the best teams in the country," said Campbell "We play in the most difficult conference in the country top to bottom and I think we are dangerous if we can put some things together,"
The playoff bracket will be set following the conclusion of the regular season on Sunday.
"No matter who we play or where we play, we're going to play for each other." said Sharma "I feel like we can beat any team we play in the playoffs here, we're going to have a few good days of practice and we're going to be a scary team in the playoffs I promise you that.
Stay tuned to WesternMustangs.ca for details.
