Just 24 hours earlier, the Marauders agonizingly came out on the wrong side of a one-possession game against the Thunderwolves. But on Saturday, McMaster turned the tables on its hosts in Thunder Bay.
Trailing for much of the game, the Marauders defence stepped up in the second half and held Lakehead to 22 points, while their offense posted 34 points to claim a 79-76 win.
Leading the charge for the Marauders was Jordan Henry, who scored an OUA career high 29 points while shooting .500 from the field and hitting eight of 12 from the charity stripe.
Three other Marauders hit double digits, with starters Connor Gilmore and Damiann Prehay each scoring 12 points while Maliek Gordon came off the bench to post 19 points. Gilmore had broken the career 1,000-point threshold the previous night, becoming the 12th Marauder to accomplish the feat and moving into 11th on McMaster's career scoring list.
The contest looked as if it would be a high scoring affair as the teams came out the gates with hot hands. Lakehead built up a seven-point lead halfway through the opening quarter, but the Marauders came roaring back to tie it up. From there the teams traded buckets, with the Thunderwolves coming away with a one-point lead through 10 minutes of play.
Early in the second quarter, Mac built up a pair of seven-point leads before Lakehead once again found their range and evened up the score. The Thunderwolves then embarked on a 15-4 run over the final 3:32 of the half to take a 54-45 lead to the dressing room.
Lakehead continued to see their lead grow after the break, scoring the first four buckets of the second half for a 17-point lead. That margin was short-lived, though, as Henry and Prehay helped the Marauders to build a 18-5 run, cutting the Thunderwolves lead to just four points head to the final frame.
With the score tied at 74, Gordon put McMaster ahead for good with 2:06 left in regulation with a big three-point bucket, and went on to make two free throws late in the quarter to put the game away. Along with the clutch shooting by Gordon, the McMaster defence stepped up in the fourth quarter, limiting Lakehead to just nine points.
NEXT UP: McMaster returns to action on Wednesday, October 30th, when they travel to St. Catharines to face the Brock Badgers at the Bob Davis Gym. Tipoff is scheduled for 8:00 PM.
