Box Score McMaster's men's basketball team paid tribute to three senior players, and then unloaded a first-half barrage of 3-point shots to defeat the visiting Laurentian Voyageurs 85-66 Saturday night in Hamilton.

The Marauders recognized Troy Joseph, Leon Alexander, and Aaron Redpath before the game, for their contributions to the McMaster men's program.
 
McMaster knew it was in for a tough game, against a Laurentian team that had taken Brock to overtime the night previous, and came out with intensity.  Before the game was five minutes old, Mac was in front 16-5 and Laurentian was looking for answers.   Marauders Rohan Boney, Troy Joseph, Connor Gilmore, and Aaron Redpath all connected from beyond the arc to grab the early lead.   The Voyageurs did close the quarter with a run of their own, so that after 10 minutes the Marauder advantage was just 23-16. 

McMaster kept hitting from long range in the second stanza, getting long bombs from Joseph and Gilmore, along with Dave McCulloch and Trevon McNeil to bump the lead up to 43-21.  Again, Laurentian finished the quarter with a flurry and scored three late hoops to trim the deficit to 43-27 at intermission.  The Marauders drained 9 of 18 attempts from behind the 3-point line over the first 20 minutes.

Laurentian came out in the third quarter and showed some grit.  McMaster cooled off from long range to start the third and the Voyageurs closed to within 12 points to make the crowd at the Burridge Gym a little nervous.  But Troy Joseph nailed another trifecta, and Lazar Kojovic got in on the fun by hitting one, and the lead moved back up to 18.  The McMaster margin was 68-49 heading to the fourth quarter.

Laurentian's Sam Hirst had a very strong second half scoring 18 points, but McMaster was getting points from a variety of sources and the maroon lead was not really challenged.  The teams played an even fourth quarter, as McMaster was able to clear the bench and close out the 19-point win.

Troy Joseph led Mac scoring with 17, followed by Gilmore with 16, Redpath with 14 and Leon Alexander, who scored 13.  Hirst had a game-high 20 for Laurentian.  McMaster ended up making 12 of 31 attempts from 3-point range for the game, with seven different Marauders knocking down triples.

Next up for the Marauders is a key clash versus the Brock Badgers on Wednesday, February 24th at the Meridian Centre in St. Catharines.  Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. for the contest which could decide which team gets a first-round bye in the upcoming OUA playoffs.