LONDON, ON - The Mustangs came up just short in a thrilling 75-72 final against the Brock Badgers Wednesday night in the Ontario University Athletics' (OUA) semi-final.
The atmosphere in Alumni Hall was electric as over 1100 fans converged on campus to take in the game.
Â
The Mustangs advanced to the semi-final with a 20-point victory against the Laurier Golden Hawks last Saturday. Brock's Cinderella-story season would continue as they knocked out the highly rated Carleton Ravens and number-two seed Ottawa Gee-Gees.Â
Â
Second-year guard Milan John opened the scoring for the Mustangs, starting off the game with back-to-back threes. Brock's momentum continued from their previous games and they were defensively sound, matching the Mustangs pace-of which few teams could do. They consistently led throughout the game.Â
Â
Veteran guard Jerric Palma checked into the game and knocked down a three on a pass from John, as the Mustangs cut it to 20-14. Brock continued to find ways to score, maintaining a five point advantage after the first quarter.
Â
Second-year guard Noah Otshudi started the second quarter with an alley-oop dunk on a pass from Tyson Dunn, who finished the game with nine assists.Â
Â
Palma continued to provide a boost off the bench, knocking down a put-back jump shot to cut the lead to one. The second quarter was a gritty one, both teams hustling and drawing fouls. The Badgers defense kept applying pressure on Western's offense, preventing them from getting set and forcing a game-high 12 turnovers from the Mustangs.Â
Â
Brock's offense capitalized on the loose balls extending their lead to 9 after the first half, 41-32.Â
Â
Veteran forward George Horn started the second half off with a charge, hoping to ignite a comeback for the Mustangs. However, Brock would continue to force the Mustangs to play into their hands and kept the pressure on them at both ends of the court, extending their lead to as much as 16 points.Â
Â
The Mustangs would fight back though, starting with John, who knocked down the tough jumper and completed the three-point play to cut the lead to 13, followed by Dunn, who knocked down a three and finished the reverse layup to cut it to eight. Rookie forward Kennedy Charles finished a layup under the basket on a dish from Dunn to cut it to five heading into the final frame.Â
Â
On his way to 18 points, 9 assists and six rebounds, Dunn knocked down both free throws and a jump shot to cut it back to one with 6:04 left in the final quarter.Â
Â
The game would continue to go back and forth, the Mustangs always playing catch-up, until Aryan Sharma stuck a deep three to tie the game at 72 with 1:39 left. He finished the night with 11 points, five rebounds and two assists.Â
Rookie forward from Brock, Jordan Tchuente, nailed a contested three with 44 seconds left, which would eventually be enough for the Badgers to hang on and advance to the Finals of the OUA championship against the Queen's Gaels on Saturday, March 2nd.Â
Â
As the Mustangs look forward to next year, Head Coach Brad Campbell expressed this as a great learning experience for the team. "Well I think a game like tonight's is a good learning experience for us, we played a high stakes game and its a great experience for a lot of the returning players. Although it hurts a ton right now, we bank that we'll take a few days off and get into the off season and use this as motivation for next year", said Campbell.Â
Â
On behalf of the entire Western Mustangs Basketball program, we would like to thank everyone who made this season possible.
