The McMaster women's basketball team dropped an 81-54 decision to the No. 4 ranked Carleton Ravens in Hamilton on Friday night. The defeat snaps a four-game Marauder win streak.

It was always going to be a tough match-up against the defending OUA champions, but the Marauders entered play short-handed as the team's top two scorers, Hilary Hanaka and Linnaea Harper were not available due to injury.

McMaster struggled right from the start, getting down 14-3 off the opening tip.  The Marauders did fight back to close within 18-14 after the first quarter.

After taking a 21-20 lead early in the second stanza, McMaster was outscored 18-6 by the Ravens, who carried a 38-27 advantage into the intermission.

Carleton started the third quarter on a 12-0 run to go up 50-27 and basically ran away from McMaster from that point.  The Ravens' lead was 64-35 after 30 minutes.   Playing for some pride McMaster won the fourth quarter 19-17, but the outcome was never in doubt.

McMaster got a 14 point effort from Erin Burns and 12 points from Julia Hanaka.  Nicole Gilmore from Carleton scored a game-high 17.

The Marauders will try to get back in the win column, when they host the Ottawa Gee-Gees on Saturday night in the Burridge Gym with a 6-pm start time.