Box Score The McMaster women's basketball team showed some grit on Saturday afternoon, coming back from a 16-point deficit to beat the Toronto Varsity Blues 72-70 on a game-winning shot from Rachael Holmes.
Playing at Toronto's new Goldring Centre for the first time, the Marauders had a strong start to the game and behind Clare Kenney, who was scoring at will, took a 23-16 lead after the opening 10 minutes. Kenney scored 15 points in the quarter and looked unstoppable.
But in the second quarter Toronto did stop her, and most of her teammates, as the Blues picked up their defense and ran off a 22-2 run to open the second stanza and take the lead. McMaster was completely out of rhythm and committed numerous turnovers against an experienced Toronto team, that was led by senior guard Jill Stratton. Once the nightmare quarter was over, the Marauders trailed the Blues 40-28 at the half, getting outscored 24-5.
The third quarter saw McMaster pick up its game, and Danielle Boiago started to get her shot falling. The Marauders were able to win the quarter by a basket and trailed 57-47 heading to the final stanza. Mac's outstanding rookie Hilary Hanaka had to go to the bench midway through the third with a lower body injury and did not return to the floor, leaving the team short-handed for the rest of the game.
McMaster played one of its best fourth quarters of the year this day, and started to make its comeback early. Holmes and Boiago hit consecutive treys to get the Toronto lead into single digits and Toronto had to call a timeout after Ally Schweitzer scored to get the Maroon within five at 64-59.
Boiago hit two quick hoops to keep her team close and Holmes drained two free throws to make it a one-possession game at 70-67. After Kenney snared a key rebound, Lexie Spadafora scored to make it 70-69 with 32 seconds to play. Toronto tried to milk the shot clock as much as possible but could not run out the clock, and Kenney again rebounded another miss by the Blues.
With time running out, McMaster brought the ball up quickly and with Toronto defenders converging on Boiago, she kicked the ball out to Holmes, who was wide open in the corner and her three-ball hit nothing but net with 1.4 seconds to go. The Blues had a final chance to score and force overtime or win the game, but the attempt would not fall and McMaster completed the dramatic comeback. Holmes was great in the final quarter with 12 points.
Kenney led the Mac scoring with 21 and grabbed 14 rebounds. Boiago added 17, Holmes had 16 and Schweitzer added 10 off the Mac bench. Stratton was top shooter for Toronto with 16.
McMaster now improves to 11 and 4 in OUA play. The Marauders will return home to play the Queen's Gaels on Saturday, February 7 with a tip-off of 12 p.m.
