After the Mustangs men’s basketball team lost to Carleton — the number one ranked team in Canada — a matchup against the winless RMC Paladins was the perfect cure for the Mustangs’ woes.
The Paladins were over matched all game Friday evening, turning the ball over 18 times as Western cruised to a convincing 105-57 victory.
Western started strong with a 17-4 run just four minutes into the game, causing RMC coach Scott James to call a time out to slow the Mustangs down. It worked only briefly, as Western finished the first quarter with a 29-10 lead.
“We wanted to crush them early, so that the game would be over and [we could] get ready for tomorrow,” forward Andrew Wedemire, who leads the team averaging 16 points per game, said. He had 10 points and six assists in limited minutes as many starters came out of the game early in the second half.
The big story of the first half was the Mustangs’ superb three-point shooting. Western hit 10 three-pointers in the first half, accounting for over half of its 57 first half points. They would finish the game 16 of 28 from beyond the arc.
“[Western’s] a very good team […] I’m not sure you can shut them down or keep them from getting those open looks. We were a little slow tonight so they had a lot of open looks,” James said.
The sharp shooting from the perimeter was key as it also opened up opportunities for the Mustangs to score down low. Garrett Olexiuk, David Harder and Wedemire combined for 34 points and 18 rebounds. Many of the points came from either in the paint or on short jump shots.
“The more [three-pointers] you’re able to make the more they are going to have to shade to the outside and we’re going to get better looks inside,” Mustangs head coach Brad Campbell said.
The trio of Olexiuk, Wedemire and Harder also combined for seven of the team’s 12 offensive rebounds, giving the Mustangs more opportunities for second chance points. As a team, the Mustangs out-rebounded the Paladins substantially, nearly doubling them up on the glass 36-19, and winning the battle on the offensive boards 12-5.
“Rebounding is a team effort, everyone has to box out […] Luckily the ball bounced our way a few times,” Olexiuk said.
With the game almost sealed away, Western was able to give the bench some added playing time in the second half. Although RMC was able to generate a little more offence, the Mustangs reserves were still able to dominate, outscoring RMC 48-32 in the second half.
Western had a balanced scoring attack with six players scoring in double digits. Rookie Zachary Angus led the way coming off the bench to score a season high 18 points, including 15 points from the three-point line.
For RMC, the key was to refocus, put the game behind them and look at the few positives the night had to offer.
“We have another game tomorrow so we’re going to forget about this game very quickly and get back to work,” James said. “Our freshmen players were battling hard against players who were much bigger and much faster […] That’s the kind of positive that you have to take out of this — that we didn’t give up tonight.”
Despite RMC’s slow start, Western still knew this was a crucial game to get back on track and fix the problems they had against Carleton and Ottawa.
“A win is a win. We’re [still] trying to work on some things,” Campbell said. “It’s an opponent that’s a bit down on their luck right now talent-wise, but we won this one and now we’ll move on and focus on tomorrow.”