In sports, the measuring stick analogy is often used. Many teams in various sports, attempt to evaluate the progress of their own teams, by comparing themselves to the better teams in their leagues, or a team that they are challenging for the division lead in the standings. Wednesday evening, Seniors night, honouring both the Women’s and Men’s players in their final year of eligibility to play, just such a team walked into Alumni Hall to face the Western Mustangs’ Men’s Basketball team. If Western wanted to measure up against top competition, their opponents, the Brock Badgers were not a bad choice. Brock sported a 20-2 record, and were on an 11 game winning streak, prior to their game versus the Mustangs. The Badgers were 1st in the OUA West division standings, kilometres ahead of Western, with no chance of being caught, having only 1 game left after this one is over. The Mustangs were not in search of validation of their season, but a win against the division leading Brock, would go along way to gaining momentum for their playoff run, which starts in the semi-finals, thanks to earning a 1st round bye. The main goal for Western, however, should be to emerge with some knowledge and results about their regular season progression thus far, but more importantly, to come out of this game injury-free.
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Anyone who remembers the Looney Tunes cartoons featuring the character “Foghorn Leghorn”, would recall when the mischievous rooster, would sneak up on his favourite target to torment, the dog, and wallop the unsuspecting canine, each time catching him by surprise. Replace the dog with the Badgers, who took the Mustangs by their tails and beat them up fairly well with that proverbial measuring stick that the purple and white had brought with them to the game. Right from jump, Western was overwhelmed by the intensity and tenacity of the 1st place Brock squad. The Badgers were all over their hosts, like a wet blanket, smothering the Mustangs with a 13-0 run to start the game, and leading by a score of 29-8 after only 1 quarter. Dani Elgadi, Brock’s leading scorer in the regular season, was causing all sorts of fits on offense for Western, who failed while trying to stop Elgadi. Elgadi, continuously found a way to score, or get fouled, earning a trip to the charity stripe. The elite level of the Badgers’ athleticism, served as a major barrier for the Mustangs to overcome in the 2nd quarter. Although Western managed to only be outscored 21-17 in the 2nd, they still trailed by a staggering 25 points, 50-25, at halftime.
The 3rd and 4th quarters, the Mustangs tried anything and everything to stop the slaughtering on such a special night, Seniors’ night, but not enough gauze in the University Hospital was going to keep the bleeding down. Western Head Coach Brad Campbell, mixed up his lineup, trying to inject players such as Julian Walker into the lineup, for his energy and excitement to simply earn some minutes, but it was all for naught. Brock was too good. After 4 quarters, the Mustangs were embarrassed in front of their home crowd by a final score of 92-51. Western guard Marko Kovac, who was having quite an offensive outburst over his last several games, was the team leader in scoring with a lowly 13 points in the blowout loss.
The loss serves notice to the Mustangs, that without a good start to the game, and a lack of ability to defend teams as athletic as the Badgers, the team has a lot of work to do if they want to make a successful playoff run in 2018. With only 1 game left on the schedule, against the Guelph Gryphons on Saturday afternoon, as Head Coach Brad Campbell stated post-game, they have to wipe the slate clean, and move on. Good luck on Saturday, and in the playoffs to the team.
