Hamilton, Ont. - The No. 1 Carleton Ravens took down the hosting McMaster Marauders Friday night in Burridge Gymnasium. In the 77-61 loss, McMaster's high scorer of the night was Nathan Pelech (Mississauga, Ont.) who scored 13 points and was named Player of the Game for the Marauders. 

McMaster opened up the scoring in their home opener with three points right off the bat. Both teams would then trade leads until Carleton had a three point lead at 12-9. Team captain Cam Michaud (Grimsby, Ont.) continued to draw fouls in the first quarter and the Marauders would take back the lead with a Nathan McCarthy (Burlington, Ont.) lay up to go ahead 13-12.

A Carleton basket would follow up McCarthy's giving the Ravens the lead back 14-13 before Pelech would sink his first three-pointer of the night for the 16-14 lead. Carleton would score another two points to tie it up at 16 all at the end of the first. 

The second quarter started off with another Pelech three-pointer but the Ravens would earn the 20-19 lead with a lay up. Later, a behing the back move by Taylor Black (Stoney Creek, Ont.) to shoot and score followed up by a three-pointer from Joe Rocca (Sarnia, Ont.) would put McMaster up by six by a score of 26-20. 

The Ravens would then call a timeout after a good run by the Marauders and Willy Manigat (Ottawa, Ont.) would score back-to-back three's to tie it up once again. After another basket from the Ravens, the Marauders would call a timeout of their own to settle the eight unanswered points the Ravens had scored. 

Later in the second quarter, the Marauders would gain the lead back with a three-pointer from team captain Victor Raso (Hamilton, Ont.) to go up by one 31-30. 

Leads would change continuously in the final minutes of the first half as both teams would sink lay ups. Michaud would score a three-pointer of his own to put the Marauders within one at 36-34 but a jumper from Elliot Thompson (Fredericton, N.B.) of the Ravens would end the half at 38-34 in favour of Carleton.

The third half would see the Ravens score 13 unanswered points that would eventually be the Marauders' demise. Aaron Redpath (Ajax, Ont.) would be the first Marauder to score in the second half after drawing a foul but the lead would be too much to overcome for the Marauders as the best team in the country was solid on defence throughout the rest of the game. 

Pelech's 13 would be acommpanied by Rocca's 11 and Raso's 10. McCarthy would also put up numbers for the Marauders with seven points and seven rebounds. 

For the Ravens, Phil Scrubb (Richmond, B.C.) could not be stopped, scoring a game-high 27 points. Manigat had another 11 for Carleton, Kevin Churchill (Toronto) scored ten as well as Tyson Hinz (Ottawa, Ont.), former CIS Men's Basketball MVP, and Thompson grabbed a game-high nine rebounds for the Ravens. 

McMaster hosts the Ottawa Gee-Gee's on Saturday night at Burridge Gymnasium.