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Leddy hurt in easy Mustangs victory

Nyssa Kuwahara/Gazette

The only thing worse than losing a top player to injury is having it happen in a meaningless game.

That’s why you could hear the collective breaths held at Alumni Hall Saturday when Western Mustangs forward Katelyn Leddy fell hard on her ankle after getting tangled up with Waterloo Warriors point guard Erin Tilley under the basket.

Tilley appeared to take the worst of it —having her shoulder treated by medical staff for around ten minutes while she lay on the floor — but Leddy had to be helped off by her teammates, heavily favouring her ankle.

The fact Western had scored enough points early in the second quarter to win the game didn’t make Leddy’s injury any easier to watch. And when she didn’t return as the Mustangs cruised to a lopsided 83-37 victory, it was easy to assume the worst.

Fortunately for the Mustangs, Leddy will have her badly sprained ankle re-evaluated this week and could be ready to return by the playoffs.

“She’ll take a few days off. We’ll have to decide where it’s at next weekend,” Mustangs head coach Stephan Barrie said.  “If she needs some extra rest next weekend we’ll give it to her.”

Getting Leddy back sooner rather than later is a priority as more injuries are the last thing this Mustangs team needs as it rolls into the playoffs.

Jacklyn Selfe — the team’s second-leading scorer — has already missed the past four games due to injury, while Kelly Moulden has been out since the middle of January and recently had knee surgery.

Barrie — who was provided some reprieve Saturday with the return of Laura Dally after missing three games — hopes to have Moulden and Selfe back in the lineup by playoff time in late February.

But any more injuries would seriously impede the Mustangs chances of taking a run at the two-time defending Ontario University Athletics champion Windsor Lancers.

“We’ve adjusted and started getting used to [Selfe] not being on the floor. We knew that would take a couple games but I think people are feeling a lot more comfortable in new roles and with increased expectations in terms of playing time,” Barrie said.

Not that playing time against Waterloo counts for much as the league-worst Warriors did most of the damage in this game to themselves, turning the ball over 18 times and shooting just 23 per cent from the field, including just 2 of 24 from three-point territory.

Fielding a roster that features 12 of 14 players in first or second year, the young Warriors have yet to win a game this season, being outscored by more than 500 points along the way.

“We’ve come a long way this year. Today we didn’t show it — we were horrible,” Warriors head coach Tyler Slipp admitted. “But we like playing tough teams and Western is a very tough team to play. We want to face the best competition.”

Second-year guard Jenny Vaughn led the way for the Mustangs with 22 points and six assists in a team-high 30 minutes of play.

She hit seven of the nine shots she took but also spent much of her night spreading the ball around as the Mustangs continued to find open looks.

That led to four Mustangs finishing in double digits in scoring, including Leddy’s 15 points and Laura Dally and Beckie Williams who both had 12 points apiece.

“Coach Barrie has been working with me a lot, not only on making plays for myself but making plays for other people,” Vaughn said. “I’ve been trying to get other people wide open shots so we can have balanced scoring.”

With Saturday’s game over before it even began, the Mustangs were looking forward to next weekend’s double header against the Lakehead Thunderwolves, a pair of games that could have a drastic effect on playoff seeding.

The Mustangs are currently a game behind Windsor for first place in the OUA west division with the top seed earning home court advantage throughout the playoffs.

There’s also the matter of playing the Thunderwolves twice to finish the regular season before possibly meeting them again in the playoffs just a week later. Head coach Stephan Barrie said he would be keeping a couple cards up his sleeve and not showing the Thunderwolves everything the Mustangs can offer.

“I’m assuming they’ll keep a few things from us until the playoffs as well. That’s just the way it goes,” Barrie said. “The most important part is, if you don’t play hard it doesn’t matter. […] It doesn’t matter what the X and O strategy is — we still have to play hard.”

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