LONDON, ON - On Saturday afternoon, the Western Mustangs Men's Basketball team advanced to the semi-finals of the Ontario University Athletics' (OUA) basketball championship with a dominant performance against the Laurier Golden Hawks.
It was a game of grit from the beginning, with both teams going back and forth for a few minutes before Milan John opened the scoring for the Mustangs.
Quick baskets by veteran Aryan Sharma and second-year guard Noah Otshudi added to the Mustangs total, while big defensive plays by John, and co-captains Tyson Dunn and George Horn kept the Golden Hawks grounded. Grabbing rebounds and running the floor helped the Mustangs maintain the upper hand throughout the first quarter, closing out the quarter 19-12.
It wasn't until halfway through the 2nd quarter that John knocked down the first of Western's seven threes throughout the game. Dunn controlled the pace of the Mustangs offense with his game-high 13 assists, directing traffic like a crossing guard and making passes like a quarterback. He found Sharma cutting under the basket, laying it in, and forward Matteo Zagar rolling under for the layup to extend the Mustangs lead 24-16 with 5:40 left in the half.
The dynamic duo of Sharma and Dunn led the way for Western at the half, each with 10 points to put the Mustangs up 44-29 at the half.
Horn opened the scoring for the Mustangs in the second half, with Dunn finding him rolling under the basket. Dunn continued to control the offense picking and choosing his spots. With 1:33 left in the quarter, he took it coast-to-coast, finishing around the rim, on his way to 19 points for the night. Laurier fought back in the third quarter, outscoring the Mustangs 27-19 to cut their deficit to seven. The Mustangs let go of the reins and committed unnecessary fouls, allowing Laurier to try and claw their way back into the contest.
The fourth quarter was the Aryan Sharma show. He started it off knocking down back-to-back triples on his way to a game-high 34 points, and then pulled down two rebounds and a block.
The rest of the Mustangs cast continued to hustle around him, pulling down rebounds, forcing turnovers, and locking in defensively. With 20 seconds left, Dunn knocked down the deep three to ice the game, sending the Golden Hawks back to Waterloo. Showing why they are the number one ranked offensive team in the country, Western outscored the Golden Hawks 29-16 in the fourth quarter to win 92-72.
John praised the Mustangs defense, "I think we played all-around great team defense, stopping helps, and I think we were just all clicking on defense today. That's the main reason why we won today."
The Mustangs finished the game with 10 steals, and out rebounded the Golden Hawks 38 to 27.
Sharma, who finished the game with 34 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals, plans to keep the momentum going forward. "We just use the same type of energy we brought into this game, the guys were very locked in, very amped up. If we can continue with that same energy and clean up a couple of things defensively, and just play our game, we're gonna be a special group."
"What you saw was typical playoff basketball. It's gonna be physical and defensive at times. Something we've been struggling with all season is our defense and today we played our best defensive game so far." said Mustangs Head Coach Brad Campbell " That's what it's gonna take moving forward. We locked in on the game plan, guys were focused and it was one of the most physical games we've played, but guys didn't back down, [kept] denying and putting a lot of defensive pressure out there."
The Mustangs will take on the Brock Badgers in the OUA semi-finals on Wednesday, February 28th at 7pm at Alumni Hall. Tickets are on sale now at WesternMustangs.ca/tickets.
