Unranked Mustangs trample Badgers
Austin Kent
Issue date: 3/4/08 Section: Sports
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"I give Western a lot of credit," said head coach Ken Murray, justifiably frustrated after the loss. "[They] came in and played very calm and cool."
The comment comes as a testament to the visiting team's poise in a hostile Bob Davis Gymnasium.
After a Brad Rootes three-pointer opened the scoring for the home side, the ballistic crowd erupted, paving the way for what looked to be an emotion-filled Ontario University Athletics (OUA) West final, but the Badger luck would soon run out.
"The bottom line is they completely dominated us, they outplayed us in every facet of the game," said Murray. "We had some pretty wide open shots and they just weren't dropping for us. It's very, very disappointing for us because this could very well have been our last game."
But the Badgers will live to see another day and they can thank league rival Carleton University for that (see below).
"[Western] didn't get caught up in the importance of the game and maybe that's the difference. We expected to be here and they didn't," said coach Murray.
After falling behind early; Brock managed to hang around in the game just enough to lower the deficit to 10 points heading into halftime.
"We wanted to win the quarter and hopefully win it by 10 so that we'd be even going into the fourth," said point guard Rootes of the team's strategy heading into the third quarter. "We came out and we hit a three right away, but then gave up nine straight points."
It was a disappointing theme that reverberated from the opening tip until the final buzzer sounded with the Mustangs on top 79-62.
"It was our inability to score that really hurt us," said Rootes with a handful of in-game examples to support his case. "We pretty much got every open look we wanted."
Coach Murray agreed, and considering that this is a veteran team with one goal and one goal only, the criticism is justified, let alone necessary if the team hopes to turn things around next weekend.
The Badgers as a whole shot 30 per cent over the course of the afternoon, which can be attributed to a number of players not living up to expectations.
Forward Dusty Bianchin was unable to capitalize on a handful of wide open 15-to-18-foot jumpers that had previously been all but guaranteed for a player with his skill set, causing a number of Badger possessions, especially early in the game, to fall apart.
Wingers Rohan Steen and Mike Kemp combined for a three-point mark of 1-10 and 16 points total, a far cry from their averages of just over 18 and 11 points per game in the OUA regular season.
Even more surprising though, than the Badgers' inability to hit shots was fifth-year Scott Murray's inability to hit anything. The experienced bomber finished with an extremely uncharacteristic zero points in what came disturbingly close to the last game of his career.
"I said to the guys 'Is this how you want to end your career?'," said coach Murray. "We never seemed to get anything going at all."
The only player exempt from shooting criticism, forward Owen White, spent the majority of the game sitting on the bench in early foul trouble.
"We did not have one player play well today," said Murray. "Not one."
So how does a team so well equipped for playoff basketball come up so far short?
"We were almost to the point where we were overprepared. When a team comes in overprepared then they end up trying a little bit too hard instead of being relaxed."
Rival Ravens open the door for Brock University
With the victory over Brock on Saturday, the Western Mustangs secure the OUA West championship. The win grants them an automatic berth in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport playoffs held March 12 to March 14. On the other side of the province, the Carleton Ravens defeated the Ottawa Gee-Gees to claim both the OUA East crown and their own playoff berth. As the host school for this year's tournament however, Carleton already had a playoff berth, meaning their second is still up for grabs. To determine who gets the third and final seed representing Ontario in the national tournament, the losers of each respective division final will playoff against each other. That means that Brock University will host the Ottawa Gee-Gees for the eighth and final national playoff spot this Saturday.
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