The McMaster men's and women's basketball teams are both riding win streaks and will be working hard to extend them, when the Western Mustangs come to Hamilton on Saturday afternoon as part of Marauder Weekend.

The No.6-ranked Marauder women's team has had little time to enjoy its 68-62 win over Windsor, which broke an 8-year winless drought, as Western has emerged as a contender in the OUA. The Mustangs are coming off a big win of their own, having beaten the Brock Badgers 66-62 on Wednesday. After those results, Western moved past Windsor to take over first-place in the OUA West Division.

McMaster has won six straight games, and leads the OUA Central Division with an 8 and 2 record.

The Mustangs get solid production from the guard tandem of Mackenzie Puklicz (18.1-PPG) and Caroline Wolynski (13.7-PPG), so keeping them under wraps will be a Marauder key to victory.


Marauder Danielle Boiago (19.8-PPG) is the second-leading scorer in the OUA and has been remarkably consistent so far this season. A big boost to the Mac attack recently has been the secondary scoring coming from Linnaea Harper and Siobhan Manning, which has just added to McMaster's balanced offense.

Tip-off in the Burridge Gym is set for 1-pm

On the men's side McMaster, ranked No.6 in the top-ten, will face a Western team that upset the No. 3-ranked Brock Badgers last Wednesday in St. Catharines. The Mustangs are currently holding onto a playoff position in the OUA West, but would like to solidify their standing and a win over the Marauders would be huge.

Western starts two prolific scorers in 5th-year forwards Greg Morrow (22.8-PPG) and Peter Scholtes (13.3-PPG), who both had big games in the win at Brock.

McMaster has won seven straight OUA games and has now moved into a first-place tie with Brock in the OUA Central Division at 8 and 2.

The Marauders have seen different players step up big at different times, and that balance has made them difficult to guard. In the last two wins over Laurier and Windsor, a Mac player has set a career scoring high as Connor Gilmore dropped 32 on Laurier and Aaron Redpath lit up Windsor for 27. With six players averaging double-figures in scoring, the Marauders just need to take care of the defense as the points are usually abundant.

The Marauder-Mustang clash will happen at 3-pm in the Burridge Gym.