Hamilton, Ont. - The McMaster men's basketball team hosted the Western Mustangs on Wednesday night at Burridge Gymnasium in their second last home game of the regular season. Cam Michaud was McMaster's high scorer on the night with a game-high 23 points and 6 rebounds in the 77-63 win. 

Two three-pointers would get the Marauders started for the night, coming from captains Cam Michaud and Victor Raso. With good defence on either end of the court, it would keep the game low scoring and with 4:30 on the clock in the first, the Marauders would have a three point lead at 8-5. The Mustangs would tie it at 8 with three minutes to go, but the quarter would end 15-10 in favour of McMaster with three points from Raso to end the quarter.

The beginning of the second would see McMaster go on an 8-0 run, with six of those points coming from Michaud. Up 23-10, the Mustangs would be forced to call a timeout. Despite the timeout, the Mustangs would be unable to cool off the Marauders, as the half ended with the home team up by 10 with a score of 37-27.

The Marauders continued to push on offence in the third quarter, with Michaud and Raso really making the difference. Western's struggles on offence would be highlighted by some great defence from McMaster and on the other end, the Marauders would be making the most of opportunities to score as well as rebound offensively.

A 20 point lead would be built up by McMaster in the third, with contributions from the captains, as well as rookie Aaron Redpath and Taylor Black. The Marauders would lead 63-45 going into the final quarter of the game.

It was in the fourth when the Marauders cooled off on the offence. Western's best efforts were both forward in playing catch-up to the large McMaster lead, but would continually be shut out, unable to break the double-digit lead.

That large lead would finally be broken down around 2:30 when a number of completed foul shots by the Mustangs would get them within three at 70-61. Flirting with that nine point lead, the Marauders held on in the final minutes to win it 77-63.

Cam Michaud was McMaster's high scorer on the night with a game-high 23 points and 6 rebounds. Rookie Aaron Redpath was named the Big Mac Player of the Game for his 17 points and Victor Raso scored 13 points and added 7 rebounds. 

For the Mustangs, Peter Scholtes was the Big Mac Player of the Game for his 20 points and teammate Ryan Barbeau matched that with 20 of his own. Greg Morrow had 10 points and six rebounds. 

The Marauders travel to Guelph to take on the Gryphons on Saturday at 3:00 p.m.