Box Score It was a long time coming, but on Wednesday night in Hamilton the McMaster men's basketball team  suffered its first loss of the season, dropping a 72-71 decision to the Brock Badgers.

The two teams seem to be building a rivalry that is growing in intensity, and this game went right down to the wire.  A large and loud contingent of Badger fans made the trip from St. Catharines as they tried to negate homecourt advantage. 

Behind the noisy crowd, Brock jumped out to an early lead but the Marauders fought back to take an 18-17 lead after the opening 10 minutes.

McMaster opened up a five-point lead to start the second stanza, before the Badgers tied the score at 26-26 midway through the quarter.  The Marauders again took the lead, but by the intermission horn, the gap between the teams was narrow with McMaster in front 35-31.

The third quarter saw Brock start off with an 8-0 scoring run to take back the lead, and the teams continued to jockey back and forth for the rest of the quarter and after 30 minutes, the Badgers held a 51-48 lead.  The third was the only quarter won by Brock, as Mac was outscored 20-13 over the 10 minutes.

The final quarter was full of momentum swings, big plays on both sides and lead changes.  With the game tied 65-65, and under a minute to go it was McMaster that blinked first.  Two Marauder turnovers led to Badger buckets, and a 70-65 lead with time running out.  Mac's Connor Gilmore made a trey to get within a basket, but two Brock free throws provided a 4-point cushion in the final moments.  Gilmore made another three-pointer with a second left, but time ran out on McMaster's win streak.

Gilmore led McMaster with 25, including the late shots from long-range to keep his team close.  The Marauders got a big boost off the bench from Chris Thompson, who scored a career-high 21, including four from beyond the arc. David McCulloch with 11 and Rohan Boney with 10 also added double-digit scoring for the men in maroon.  Brock's All-Canadian Dani Elgadi led his team with 20 points and 12 rebounds.

With their 17-game win streak now over, the Marauders will regroup and get ready to face the Guelph Gryphons on Wednesday, November 23 in the Burridge Gym.  The double-header will tip-off at 6 p.m. with the women's game, followed by men's action at 8 o'clock.