Box Score The McMaster women's basketball team bounced back from its first loss of the year to defeat the Toronto Varsity Blues 87-79 in Hamilton Saturday night.

As expected, it was a much tougher match-up than the Marauders had two weeks earlier, when they travelled to Toronto and beat the Blues by over 30.

The teams were tied at 22-22 after the opening quarter, an indication that the win would not come easy.   McMaster had the long ball dropping over the first two quarters, making 8 of 18 trey attempts with four different players hitting from beyond the arc.  By halftime McMaster had opened up a 48-40 advantage.

McMaster allowed Toronto to win the third quarter by a point, shaving the lead to seven.  The Blues next made a quick move to start the final quarter and closed to within 62-61.  At that point Marauder Linnaea Harper keyed a 13-4 McMaster run by hitting two shots from three-point range and the Maroon lead was back in double digits.  The Blues continued to battle but could get no closer than six points the rest of the way and the Marauders closed out the win.

Harper had a career night for McMaster as she scored 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead her team. The sophomore from Newmarket was sensational making 7 of 10 from the floor, 5 of 6 from long-range and 5 of 6 from the charity stripe.  Danielle Boiago added 19, and both Rachael Holmes and Hilary Hanaka chipped in 15 each.  Good to see Hanaka find her stroke in only her second game back from injury.

The Blues top shooter was Rahshida Atkinson who finished with 21.

The Marauders improve to 3 and 1 in the OUA Central Division and will next head on the road for games at Queen's and York next weekend.