Men's basketball: Wednesday night in the OUA West

Lakehead at Guelph, which has playoff implications, goes on the weekend. The Gryphons control their own destination; two wins at:

• Western 90, Windsor 76 — It had no effect on the standings, but Western, led by 24 points from Keenan Jeppesen and 22 from Bradley Smith (in just 24 minutes), carved up Windsor to the tune of an effective 57% shooting percentage. They might have won by more, but had 18 bricked free throws, half a dozen each from their top two scorers. That could just be a blip. Mustangs coach Brad Campbell basically went down to a seven-player rotation.
  
  Nigel Johnson-Tyghter had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Lancers, while Greg Surmacz (16 on 5-of-18 shooting) had an off-night.
• Waterloo 78, Laurier 69 — Warriors guard David Burnett hit for 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting, a bit of an outlier performance. The Warriors have nine OUA wins; there's still the mathematical possibility of a crazy three-way tie that could put them out of the playoffs. They could also could conceivably get the fourth spot if they beat McMaster, Guelph splits with Lakehead and Laurier loses.
  
  Speaking of the Golden Hawks, they've dropped two straight and have not locked up a playoff spot; they might end up backing in. Kale Harrison (2-of-10) and Jesse MacDonald (3-of-10) were off on the same night, which can't happen. Matthew Buckley (18 points, eight boards in 24 minutes) picked up some of the slack, and accounted for half the Hawks' 13 free-throw attempts.
• McMaster 72, Brock 55 — Mac's big body underneath, Mouctar Daiby, had 25 points and 14 rebounds to help Mac dominate the final 20 minutes after the game was tied at halftime. Mac got 19 points from Tyrell Vernon, who presumably had a lot to do with Brock guard Didi Mukendi's 1-for-7 shooting night.
  
  McMaster was 0-for-16 on three-pointers. They're athletic, and have players who get to the rim, but are next-to-last in the OUA in three-pointers made and in free-throw percentage, according to the official stats.
  
  Brock (18 points from Joel Whitty) can nab the final playoff spot if it beats Western Saturday (unlikely) and if Laurier loses at Windsor. There's
  
  In the event of a bunch of teams ending up 9-13, here are the season series splits:

  Brock: Swept by Guelph, +2 vs. Laurier, -2 vs. Waterloo
  Guelph: Swept Brock, +5 vs. Laurier, swept Waterloo
  Laurier: -2 vs. Brock, -5 Guelph +25 vs. Waterloo
  Waterloo: +2 vs. Brock, lost twice to Guelph, -25 vs. Laurier