The only thing worse than losing a game to Windsor, is losing two.
Much like the women, the men’s basketball team was defeated by Windsor, losing 80-73.
This is the second time the Mustangs have been defeated by the highly skilled Windsor squad this season, extending their losing streak to two games and dropping their record to 7-6.
While Western hung around the entire game — not once being outscored by more than five points in a quarter — Windsor took the lead from their first possession and never looked back.
“We were in the game right until the last minute,” Mustangs head coach Brad Campbell said. “If we cleaned up two details in the last minute we at least [could] have [had] a chance to win. What we preach is not so much the end of the game, but that the second possession in a game is just as important as the last possession in a game.”
Contrary to their coach’s advice, Western opened the game slowly, turning the ball over on several occasions leading to a 22-17 Lancers lead at the end of the first quarter.
“We were out of sync at the beginning. We came out kind of slow, which is unusual for us,” Mustang forward Andrew Wedemire said of his team’s efforts.
The second quarter was more of the same, as the Mustangs were plagued by turnovers. By halftime, Western had accumulated 15 turnovers in total, seven by the normally sure-handed point guard, Ryan Barbeau.
Many of these turnovers wound up in the hands of Windsor forward Nigel Johnson-Tyghter, who had a monster first half with 16 points, shooting a perfect six-for-six from the floor.
“My teammates kept finding me in good spots and we just moved the ball well. They set me up with some easy shots,” Johnson-Tyghter said of his first half success.
Fortunately, Barbeau was able to redeem himself, going three-for-three from beyond the arc to keep the game competitive at 40-37 going into halftime.
Although Western was able to hold Johnson-Tyghter to a measly three points in the second half, Windsor’s depth proved to be too much for the Mustangs to handle as four Lancers chipped in five or more second half points.
“Windsor’s strength is they have a lot of athleticism, they have a lot of talent and they have an awful lot of depth and they keep running it at you,” Campbell said. “With [Andre] Smyth, Johnson-Tyghter and [Lien] Phillip coming off the bench, they can rotate those guys in and put some pressure on your inside game. With our lack of depth sometimes it’s tough for us to handle some of those situations.”
However, with just over a minute on the clock, Western was able to pull within a point. Unfortunately, the Mustangs were unable to capitalize on their momentum as a late three pointer by Windsor’s Enrico Di Loreto proved to be the final nail in the coffin.
“It was a huge win,” Johnson-Tyghter stressed. “We lost badly last year on this court so we wanted to come back here and get a win. It was good for us to get that.”
On Saturday the Mustangs travelled to Hamilton where they were hammered by the McMaster Marauders 93-64. They host the Waterloo Warriors at Alumni Hall Wednesday at 8 p.m.