Laurentian's Ben Avery Gymnasium is one of the toughest environments for visiting teams in Canada but the McMaster men's basketball team were able to brave the homecrowd theatrics and gut out an 83-80 win over the Voyageurs on Friday night in Sudbury.

Coming off a loss to Ryerson, it was a pretty flat bunch of Marauders that tipped off the game, while the Laurentian team saw the opportunity to knock off a ranked opponent and came out on fire.  Behind 14 points from Ryan Bennett, the Voyageurs dominated the first 10 minutes and opened up a 25-14 lead.

The second stanza saw a visibly more intense McMaster squad take the floor and slowly it began to chip into the Laurentian advantage.   By halftime, the Marauders had closed the gap to six, as Laurentian took a 46-40 lead into the locker room.  McMaster paid better attention to Bennett, but the Laurentian guard still had 20 after 20 minutes.

In the third quarter, Laurentian looked to forward Tychon Carter-Newman to pick up the slack and he responded by keeping his team in front, but only just.  McMaster shortened its bench and started to control the backboard, keeping the Voyageurs from getting many second-chance points.  Heading to the final quarter, Laurentian's lead was only a single possession at 65-62.

The fourth quarter saw McMaster regain the lead 71-70 for the first time since it led 3-0 in the first quarter.  But credit Laurentian for staying in the game, and the home team opened a 78-72 lead with just under 5 minutes remaining.  McMaster looked to be in dire straits as it missed four straight free throws that could have cut into the deficit.
  
Then a Rohan Boney basket and a huge trey from Taylor Black got Mac within a point, before Carter-Newman made it 80-77 with less than two minutes left.  Joe Rocca powered in and scored a tough hoop and was fouled, but missed from the charity stripe and the Marauders still trailed 80-79.  Getting the stop that was needed on the defensive end, McMaster's Aaron Redpath was knocked into the crowd for a Laurentian foul and was then further accosted by some of the locals in the first row.    Quickly separated from the fans, Redpath drained his two free throws to put his team ahead by one with 39 seconds remaining. 

With Laurentian calling timeout and down by a point, they ran a play for Bennett, who had cooled off in the second-half, but the Voyageur guard was whistled for a travel on his move to the basket, sending the homecrowd into a frenzy on the turnover call.   McMaster was able to run the clock down to 6 seconds before Laurentian fouled and Rocca hit his two foul shots to make it a three-point lead.   Still having a final chance to tie and force overtime, Bennett's long three-point attempt was off and the Marauders completed the comeback.

Black was the top Mac shooter with 18 points, while Rocca dropped 17.  Rohan Boney had a monster night with 16 points and 14 rebounds, and Redpath also added 16 and had the last word with the locals by leaving with the win.  Carter-Newman finished with a game-high 27 to lead Laurentian, while Bennett scored 24.

McMaster improves to 8 and 3 and moves on to face the Nippissing Lakers in North Bay on Saturday night at 8 p.m. with the game on OUA.tv.