LONDON, Ont. – Saturday afternoon at Western University's Alumni Hall, the Guelph Gryphons women's basketball team saw their 2021-22 season come to an end after coming up just short in a tightly-contested OUA quarterfinal matchup with the Western Mustangs. The host Mustangs pulled away late, ending the 4th quarter on a 17-6 run to win 61-57 in a back-and-forth affair.
Meeting for the third time in a 10-day span, there was once again very little separating the Gryphons and Mustangs, as the two OUA West rivals battled for a spot in the OUA Final Four. The Mustangs were able to take a 29-22 lead into the locker room at half, but the Gryphons would fight hard to battle their way back into the game in the second half. The Gryphons were able to make some key defensive adjustments in the second half to keep them in the game, with the Gryphons switching to a zone defence, which caused the Mustangs all sorts of trouble.
After the Gryphons outscored Western 20-13 in the 3rd quarter, the game was tied up at 42-42 heading to the final quarter. Early in the 4th, the Gryphons would continue their strong play, building up a 51-44 lead with 6:00 minutes to play in the game. But from there, the OUA West No. 2-seeded Western Mustangs would start to take control, ending the game on a 17-6 run to escape with a dramatic 61-57 win.
Trailing 58-55 with 1:36 remaining, the Gryphons would get a big bucket from
MacKeely Shantz to make it a one-point game. After a Western free throw pushed the Mustangs lead to 59-57, the Gryphons would have one last chance to try to tie the game or take the lead with a three pointer, with Guelph in-bounding the ball with just :06 seconds left in the game. The Gryphons would get the ball to their OUA All-Star guard,
Burke Bechard, but Bechard was unable to split a Western double-team, leading to a late Gryphon turnover. The Mustangs would tack on two more free throws, bringing the Gryphons memorable 2021-22 season to an end.
Bechard finished with a team-high 15 points to go along with 9 rebounds and 5 assists in the final game of her spectacular Gryphon career, while teammate
MacKeely Shantz scored 8 of her 14 points in the final quarter, while also recording 5 rebounds. Both teams played lockdown defence throughout the afternoon, with the Gryphons limiting Western to just 25.7% shooting from the field (18-70). The Gryphons themselves were held to 33.3% shooting from the field (23-69) and were 3-18 from beyond the arc. The Mustangs held an important advantage at the free throw line, going 20-28 from the charity stripe, compared to Guelph's 12 trips to the free throw line (8-12). With the win, Western moves on to face the Brock Badgers in an OUA semi-final matchup on Wednesday, March 23.
