It's just one pre-season win, but it was a sweet victory for coach Patrick Tatham as the McMaster men's basketball team opened the non-conference schedule with a 72-68 overtime decision over the Heat from UBC-Okanagan to give the new man in charge a win in his first game on the Marauder bench.

Typical of early season action, neither team was very sharp to start the game.  It took over two minutes of game time before UBC-O scored the first bucket, and after the first quarter the school from out west held a slim 8-7 lead over the home side.

The second quarter saw the Heat open up a 15-7 lead, before Marauder Miles Seward started to generate some heat of his own.  The first-year guard scored 11 points in the quarter as McMaster fought back to take a 28-25 advantage into the intermission.

Starting the third quarter with a scoring burst, the Marauders bumped the lead up to 42-34. But UBC-O finished the quarter on an 6-0 run to pull within a hoop, at 42-40 after 30 minutes.

The fourth quarter saw the teams exchange the lead back and forth.  Trailing 55-52 with just over two minutes left, McMaster's Marko Grahovac nailed a corner trey to tie the score at 55-55.  The Heat regained the lead, but another new Marauder, Sasha Simic, nailed a long three-pointer to put McMaster up 58-57 with less than a minute remaining.  With a chance to win the Heat's Aldrich Berrios was fouled on a shot attempt, but made only one of two free throws, and the teams went to overtime tied 58-58.

McMaster got the fast jump in the extra session, and took a 67-60 lead with under three minutes to go.  But Aloysius Callaghan made two tough triples to bring the Canada-West team within a point at 67-66.  With less than 40 seconds remaining, Seward made a clutch baseline fall-away shot and the Mac lead was back to three.  UBC-O had a look to tie, but could not make another shot and Simic hit a late free-throw to provide the final margin.

Top shooter for McMaster was Miles Seward, who scored 24 for the game.  Matt Quiring dropped 13 and Sasha Simic chipped in 11.  For UBC-O, Callaghan had a game-high 25, while Berrios added 12.  

The Marauders will next host Laval University on Friday, September 29 with tip-off in the Burridge Gym set for 7-pm.