For the second consecutive Friday, the McMaster women's basketball team wilted in the fourth quarter and dropped an 83-71 decision to the Ryerson Rams in Toronto Friday night. 

Playing without leading scorer Linnaea Harper, McMaster was in tough against a Rams team that plays very well on homecourt and brings a considerable size advantage over the Marauders.

The Marauders trailed 19-15 after the opening 10 minutes, but fought back in the second quarter and finished with a late 6-0 run to tie the score at 34-34 heading into the intermission.  Without Harper, McMaster was forced to switch to a 2-3 zone defense to negate the length of the Rams and it had some success.

In the third, McMaster grabbed an early lead and was in front 57-54 heading to the final stanza.

The fourth quarter saw Ryerson assume control as the Rams took the lead early and withstood a Mac rally that brought the Maroon within four at 71-67 with just under four minutes to go.  But Ryerson showed some touch from the outside, and outscored McMaster 12-4 to close out the win.  The Rams won the final quarter by 29-14 overall.

It was only a week prior that the Marauders saw a fourth-quarter lead evaporate against Queen's in another road defeat.

Hilary Hanaka led McMaster with 20 points, with Jelena Mamic adding 17 and Olivia Wilson 12.  Ryerson's top shooter was Sofia Paska with 18, while three other Rams hit for double digits. 

The Marauders did well to tie up the rebound battle against the bigger Rams as each team grabbed 40 boards, but the Mac shooting touch was as frosty as the weather as the team only made 34.7% of its attempts, while Ryerson shot 52.5% from the floor.

The Marauders will move on to play at the University of Toronto on Saturday night with tip-off set for 6-pm. The webcast is available for viewers on OUA.tv