Despite enjoying a sizeable home court advantage at a rare School Day morning contest, the Laurier Golden Hawks were unable to slow the Marauders roll Wednesday.
Maintaining their perfect run of form in 2018, McMaster downed Laurier 76-69 at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium, in Laurier's third and final School Day game of the 2017-18 season.
Sarah Gates (Newmarket, ON) had a breakthrough game, finishing the morning with a team-leading and career high 22 points from 7-15 shooting from the field, while adding a career high 13 rebounds. She was lethal from long range, shooting 67 percent from beyond the arc.
Gates wasn't the only Marauder to have success from the three-point line, as the Marauders shot an impressive 47.4 percent from downtown.
Laurier's Nicole Morrison was typically productive Wednesday, finishing the game with 20 points to match her season average.
Not shaken by the occasion, or the unusual 11:00 a.m. tipoff, the Marauders got out to an early 12-1 lead in the opening four minutes of the first quarter.
After a quarter of play, the point differential stayed the same, as McMaster pushed the scoring to 22-11.
Laurier leaned on their fifth-year veteran Morrison, who pushed the tempo for the Golden Hawks, finishing the half with nine points of her own.
The Marauders headed into halftime holding onto a 40-31 lead.
In the second half, neither team skipped a beat, as both squads continued to trade buckets.
The fourth quarter brought opportunity for the Golden Hawks, as they went on a 13-4 run to narrow the Marauders lead to three points. Theresa Burns called a timeout with her Marauder holding onto a 61-58 lead with six minutes remaining in the quarter.
Laurier held out hope of a comeback for a matter of minutes, before McMaster broke away to an eight-point lead in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. A late surge by the Golden Hawks wasn't enough, as the Marauders won their seventh straight game.
The Marauders now hold onto a 13-4 record and enter the weekend in first place in the OUA West division.
UP NEXT: The Marauders will be back in action on Saturday, January 27 when they travel to Guelph to take on the Gryphons. Game time is scheduled for 1 p.m.
Marauders games can be streamed on OUA.tv.
