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Overmatched Warrior squad gets trampled

October 26, 2011
By Pat Robinson

If Friday night’s exhibition game against the Waterloo Warriors is any indication, this year’s women’s basketball is going to be a dominant force.  Cruising to victory with relative ease, the Mustangs took care of business winning with a final score of 76-34.

After starting off a little slow, the Mustangs took complete control of the game half way through the first quarter. Fuelled by new recruit Annabel Hancock’s long range shooting prowess, along with sophomore guard Laura Dally’s five points, the Mustangs were able to take an 18-9 lead heading in to the second quarter. The big performance by Dally drew the ire of both her coaches and teammates alike.

“Laura was a dominant force on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball, she will be one of the best young players in Canada, Laura just needs to enjoy the moment,” Brian Cheng, Mustangs’ head coach, said.

Dally’s dominance did not end at halftime as she put up another six points in the second quarter along with eight points from new recruit Caroline Wolynski.  This helped pave the way to a comfortable 41-16 half time lead for the Mustangs.

“Defence is what we are focusing on as a team. We want teams to be intimidated by our defence when playing against us. Tonight we created a lot of turnovers and I was a beneficiary of a very strong defensive effort,” Dally said.

The second half was much of the same as the Mustangs continued to pour it on offensively combined with lockdown play on the defensive end.  Third year star Jenny Vaughn and rookie Emma Nieuwenhuizen made strong contributions defensively as they played integral roles in limiting the Warriors to only six points in the third quarter. Cheng was pleased after the game as he expressed his desire to build the Mustangs identity around team defence.

“I thought we took a first step towards our identity—we will be a tough defensive team. I thought we defended better and took care of the ball on offense better than we did last week at Ryerson,” Cheng said.

Tyler Slipp, the head coach of the Waterloo Warriors, praised the Mustangs’ effort on both sides of the ball following the game.

“Our team saw tonight what we as a coaching staff preach which is strong defensive play and pressure.  The Mustangs beat us in every facet of the game and certainly it is a wake-up call for our team to bring a much higher compete level moving forward,” Slipp said.

Among the many stellar performances that emerged from the Mustangs blowout, fourth-year forward Kaitlyn Leddy was impressive, scoring 21 points. She has taken on a leadership role for the young Mustangs team.  Finishing with 15 points on the night, the Mustangs and first-year coach Bruce Chen may lean on Leddy to shoulder a sizable load as the team moves closer to regular season play.

After the impressive win against the Warriors, the Mustangs narrowly defeated the Lions 62-60 on Sunday. The Mustangs are back at it again next week playing against the York Lions on Monday. The Mustangs play on Sunday, October 30, when they host Trinity Western at 11:00 a.m. at Alumni Hall.

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