Recap The Court

Jacob Smith

The Western Mustangs played host to the Windsor Lancers on Tuesday night to open the 2023 OUA women’s basketball season. Windsor came away with a 64-51 victory against their division rival and their defence is looking like it will keep them in a lot of games. As you may expect with Windsor teams as of late.

The game opened with a heavy emphasis put on the paint from both sides. Western ran the ball through the post on a lot of their possessions and often tried to find post ups. Windsor, using their strength which is their interior defence, challenged vertically and denied a lot of Western’s opportunities, opening transition looks for players like Reine Ndome.

Reine had 8 points in the first quarter, scoring 8 of the Lancers first 10 on the way to a 12-9 Lancers quarter. Windsor set the tone with their defence in the paint and Western would need to spread the floor more if they wanted to find more success. The second quarter saw the same as the first as Windsor dominated in transition and off defensive rebounds, outscoring the Mustangs 21-11 and taking a 33-20 lead at half time.

The third quarter is when Western started to spread the floor more, and they pushed back on the Lancers lead thanks to the play of their newest transfer, MacKeely Shantz. MacKeely was the Mustangs best player on Tuesday night, and her 10-point third quarter off a combination of getting to the line and threes, made it a two-point game, 44-42 Lancers, going into the fourth quarter.

Even though Paris Alexander and MacKeely were starting to find their rhythm from deep, the Lancers put their foot down defensively once again in the fourth quarter and their efficiency working around the rim was too much to stop. Isabella Anes scored eight in the quarter, Julia Chiarot six, and the Lancers outscored Western 20-9 in the quarter en route to their victory.

Windsor showed that they will be one of the better defences in the league, Western showed what their offence can be when they spread the floor and step into more threes, and Windsor came out on top. These two teams will see each other again later in the season, December 2nd at Windsor.