Box Score
GUELPH, Ont. - The Guelph Gryphons women's basketball team dropped their first game of the new year as they fell 68-64 to the visiting Western Mustangs on Thursday night at the W.F. Mitchell Centre.  The loss drops them to 4-4 and boosts the Mustangs to 5-3.  Tonight's game will be aired on Rogers TV tape delay this Saturday (Jan. 5) at 1:00p.m.
 
The Gryphons got behind early in the contest, going down by 42-25. However they wiped the rust off in the lockeroom and entered the second half making a fierce comeback led by some clutch shooting from Kayla Goodhoofd (Oakville, Ont.) and Alexandra Beatty(Woodstock, Ont.).  Despite outscoring the Mustangs 39-26 in the second, it was too little too late.   
 
Three Gryphons earned double digits with Goodhoofd leading the way with 14 points. Erica McFadden (Alma, Ont) followed closely behind with 13 points while Alyssa Shortt (Waterloo, Ont.) netted 10.
 
Jenny Vaughan (Dundas, Ont) of Western led all scorers with 19 points on the night while shooting 9-10 from the charity stripe.
 
Following a two game streak to end the first half of the season, the Gryphons were unable to maintain their earlier momentum in the opening stages of their first game back as the Mustangs jumped ahead 7-0 in the first five minutes of play.  Yet as the quarter wound down, Erica McFadden found her groove with much-needed five-point streak to kickstart the Gryphon offence to close the gap as the first quarter rung out with the Mustangs ahead 14-12.
 
The opening of the second saw a brief burst of Gryphon ferocity as Goodhoofd charged the paint for her first basket of the game with the answering free throw to complete the three-point play to give the Gryphons their first lead of the game.  Unfortunately, this momentum was short-lived as the miscommunications on the Gryphon side mounted to give the Mustangs an opportunity to extend their lost lead to 10 with less than five minutes left in the half.  As the Gryphon offence slowly rebuilt momentum in the dying stages of the first, the Mustang offence retained their tenacity to drop the Gryphons further to 42-25 at the end of the first.
 
The Gryphon squad finally began to show signs of life as they opened the second half by piecing together the first streak of nine to close the gap.  Even with the persistent Mustang attack, the Gryphon defence continued to shut down the Western presence in the paint to outshoot the Mustangs 21-10 in the third to bring the game to within six.
 
Despite the strong attack in the third, the Mustangs were the first to strike in the fourth with a deep attack beyond the arc.  But the Gryphons were quick to regain control of the court as they opened another 7-point streak to cut the game to two led by two three pointers from Beatty.  And while the Gryphons maintained a fierce hold on the ball as the clock wound down, they were unable to catch the Mustang offence as Jenny Vaughan sealed a 68-64 Mustang victory by going 1-2 from the line as the buzzer
sounded.
 
The Gryphons look for redemption as they travel to Windsor to take on the Lancers on January 5.  Tip off is set for 6 pm.