Box Score In one of the biggest wins under Coach Amos Connolly, the McMaster men's basketball team rallied from a 14-point second-half deficit to defeat the visiting Ottawa Gee-Gees 96-90 in Hamilton on Friday night. Ottawa entered play as the No. 2 team in the national rankings, while McMaster was ranked 6th.

The game started with Ottawa grabbing a quick 5-0 lead, but the teams played almost dead even from that point and by halftime the Gee-Gees were in front 43-39. Troy Joseph was on fire from the perimeter in the first-half, knocking down 4 of 6 from beyond the arc, and tallying 14 points for the Marauders, while Leon Alexander added 12 in a strong opening half.

Only trailing by four heading into the third quarter, McMaster allowed Ottawa to grab control of the game and behind some long-range sniping from a variety of shooters, the Gee-Gees built the lead up to 14 and looked to be cooled out for the night. McMaster got the deficit down to 12 at 78-66 heading to the fourth-quarter, but still had a deep hole to climb out of, against an elite opponent.

The Marauders started the final stanza with a 8-2 run to get within six, forcing Ottawa to call timeout with almost eight minutes left. McMaster continued to chisel away as the game wore down, and Ottawa began to play cautiously, until Mac finally took an 86-85 lead to complete the rally. But Ottawa is highly ranked for a reason and the game was tied at 89-89 late, when Troy Joseph drained his seventh trey of the contest to put the Maroon up by three at 92-89. Ottawa was forced to foul to extend the game, but the Mac men made their throws to close out the huge win. McMaster dominated the final quarter by 30-12 to take the win.

Joseph scored a career-best 30 points on 9 of 12 shooting, that included making 7 of 9 from long-range. Leon Alexander was a beast in the second half as he finished with 27 and 10 boards, while Rohan Boney had a stellar game with 24 and 11 rebounds to match the double-double of his teammate Alexander. Mike L'Africain with 18 led the Ottawa scoring parade.

The Marauders have little time to celebrate the big win as they must prepare to play the defending CIS Champion Carleton Ravens on Saturday night. Tip-off at the Burridge Gym is set for 8-PM.