On Sunday afternoon the McMaster men’s basketball team built up a big lead and then survived a ferocious comeback to beat the Cape Breton University Capers 79-74.

Cape Breton was playing its third game on a tour of the OUA, having registered wins versus Brock and Ryerson earlier.

The Capers jumped out to an early 5-0 lead before McMaster scored its first basket and led the Marauders 10-4, when Aaron Redpath started to heat up.  Redpath scored 8 points in the quarter and some timely 3-point shooting by Nate Pelech and Joe Rocca allowed the Maroon to end the quarter on top 23-17.   

McMaster stepped up the defense in the second quarter and saw the lead grow to as much as 20, before settling for a 43-27 advantage heading into the intermission.

The third quarter saw a determined group of Capers start to trim the McMaster lead.  Behind James Dorsey and Shaquille Keith, Cape Breton stepped up the defensive pressure and forced several turnovers that became quick points.  The Mac lead shrank to 57-55, when Keith missed a 3-point shot that would have given the Capers the lead. On the next possession, Marauder Nate Pelech drilled a trey and restored some breathing space.  The quarter ended with McMaster leading 63-55.

 The fourth quarter saw Redpath get going again and McMaster got the lead back up to 13, but Cape Breton refused to quit and chiseled the lead back to two points with about a minute to go.  Taylor Black then made a tough baseline move and scored to make it a two possession game.  Another Caper miss from long-range forced them to foul and Redpath added a free-throw to provide the final margin.

McMaster had four starters score in double figures led by Aaron Redpath with 25, Pelech and Rocca each scored 14 and Black finished with 12.  For Cape Breton Shaquille Keith and James Dorsey each scored 21.

McMaster now heads out on a road trip to British Columbia, where the team will play UBC, UNBC, and UFV next weekend.  The western swing will be the last non-conference competition for the Marauders before OUA conference play starts on Friday, November 9^th vs. York.