Stangs’ seasons on line
One is hanging on by its finger tips. The other is in a battle that could see it earn a home game in the playoffs or miss the playoffs entirely.
The last two games of the season will determine the fates of the Western’s basketball teams.
The women’s team controls its own destiny. With McMaster and Windsor on the schedule, a pair of wins will assure Western of a playoff spot, and perhaps home court advantage. A pair of losses could eliminate them.
The Mustangs are tied with McMaster at 10-10 in fourth place in Ontario university West play. The top six teams make the playoffs. Guelph and Lakehead are in sixth and seventh at 9-11. The game Wednesday at Alumni Hall against McMaster is massive. With No. 2-ranked Windsor being the final game of the season, the Mustangs need a win against Mac. McMaster beat the Mustangs a week ago. A split means any tiebreaker goes to point differential.
Guelph and Lakehead play each other twice. Western holds the tiebreaker against Guelph, having beaten them twice but Lakehead holds the tiebreaker against Western.
The women stayed in the hunt with a 75-64 win over Waterloo Saturday.
Laura Dally had 21 to lead Western with Jenny Vaughan adding 17 and Katelyn Leddy 15.
The men’s team had to stage a huge rally in Waterloo.
Down by 17 points in the third quarter and by five with 25 seconds left, the Mustangs got a buzzer-beater from Greg Morrow to send the game into overtime before emerging with a 105-102 win.
The architect of the win was guard Ryan Barbeau. The OUA’s second-leading scorer had a career-high 46 points including 11 in overtime. He added six rebounds and eight asssts.
Mustangs coach Brad Campbell called it one of the “most incredible individual performances I have ever seen.
“It wasn’t just the number of points but some of the shots he made — the degree of difficulty was unbelievable,” Campbell said. “He also had a lot of assists. He was almost in every basket we made in the second half.”
Morrow finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
The Mustangs need to keep winning. They are tied with Guelph for sixth place, the final playoff spot at 8-12 but they must finish ahead of the Gryphons because Guelph holds the tiebreaker advantage.
Brock is fifth at 9-11. If Western can finish tied with Brock, Western holds the tiebreaker advantage.
Guelph has a tough road ahead as well. The Gryphons play West-leading Lakehead twice.
The Mustangs did get some good news on the men’s basketball front. They got a commitment from highly sought after recruit Andrew Van Camp.
In a sport where size is a highly prized commodity and not always available, Van Camp is 6-foot-8 and has spent the past two seasons at Kiski Prep in Saltsburg, Penn.
The Western/McMaster doubleheader Wednesday at Alumni Hall begins at 6 p.m.
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