Thursday, January 28th 2010

By Brian Decker

Since falling on back-to-back nights to the Lakehead Thunderwolves, McMaster has fallen out of the CIS top-10 and hasn’t returned. And having lost to all four Ontario teams in the top-10, it may be a while before they can return to the ranks of the nation’s best teams.

It does seem like the team that went 9-0 in the preseason and soundly beat ranked teams Ottawa and St. Francis Xavier hasn’t been around for a while. But after a thorough 93-64 beat down of the Western Mustangs and a solid 83-76 overtime road win over the scrappy Guelph Gryphons this week, it’s easy to imagine that team well on its way back to contention.

Keenan Jeppesen, Mac’s go-to-guy all season, was huge in the win over Guelph on Wednesday. Jeppesen scored 33 points in a thrilling head-to-head duel with the Gryphons’ Jay Mott, who poured in 18 of his own.

After a back and forth game that was tight throughout the fourth quarter, the Marauders dominated overtime, coming out with a 7-0 run to open the extra period.

Breaking out with a career game on Wednesday was guard Jordan Tew, who scored a season high 19 points. The guard is one of the season’s major success stories, having recovered from devastating ACL and Achilles tears in high school to become a regular part of Head Coach Joe Raso’s rotation.

Said Raso of the rookie guard, “Jordan is a success story based on himself and our medical staff… he works so hard, and the team is happier for him than anyone else.”

Tew converted a layup while being fouled one minute into the extra session, making the free throw to give the Marauders a five-point lead they would not relinquish. The 6’2” Dundas native also produced a block to preserve a three-point lead with a minute remaining in the game.

Earlier in the week, Jeppesen faced his former team in the Western Mustangs for the first time. An MBA student in his final year of eligibility, Jeppesen played two seasons with the Mustangs, leading them to last year’s CIS semi-final game. The Stoney Creek native led the Marauders with 22 points and 11 rebounds.

Raso said that the game, which was much closer than the score would indicate through the first half, was decided when his team went to Jeppesen on offence.

“Sometimes I have to introduce our guys to Keenan… this is the man, and he has to touch the ball. It’s gonna be too late when he leaves, and you’ll miss him.”

The third quarter saw Mac blow the game wide open with a 21-2 run, a momentum shift that started with Mustangs star Andrew Wedemire fouling out with just 10 points. It was arguably McMaster’s finest half of the season, which saw them share the ball, play solid team defence and knock down shots that just haven’t been falling lately.

“Sometimes we let our ego get in front of our brains… it wasn’t until the second half when we started playing more as a team that we had some more success,” said Raso after the game.

Still, if anyone can find things that need to be worked on in a 30-point win, it’s Raso, who understands the team still has a lot of work to do if it wants to contend in the playoffs.

“In the first half [we] were doing things that aren’t their strengths,” said the longtime coach of his players, who noted that the Marauders did a better job of taking advantage of mismatches in the second half.

A return to the top-10 for the Marauders, who sit at 9-6 and in third place in the stacked OUA West, will require a continuation of their modest three game winning streak over division opponents. One of those games takes place this Saturday against the 8-7 Waterloo Warriors this Saturday in Waterloo.

With the losses to their top-10 rivals, no one is going to prematurely crown the Marauders national title contenders just yet. But if there is one thing the team can learn from Jordan Tew, it’s that being down doesn’t mean you’re out. With Jeppesen leading the way and a versatile supporting cast in tow, this team is far from out, and looking to get back to being ranked among the country’s best teams.