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Marauders heating up for March

Thursday, February 4th 2010

BRIAN DECKER

SPORTS EDITOR

As the OUA playoffs approach, it is getting increasingly unlikely any team will want a piece of the McMaster Marauders. After a two-win week that saw Mac win by a combined 49 points, this team is starting to look like the team that was once upon a time ranked no. 3 in the country.

The week saw the Marauders turn what was billed as a heated division battle for playoff position against the Waterloo Warriors into an 87-57 blowout on Saturday, and follow that up with a solid 84-65 win over the Laurier Golden Hawks last night.

Winding down the OUA regular season and encountering division foes for the last time before playoffs, Head Coach Joe Raso says his team is fine-tuning to be prepared for the playoffs.

“All this month, we’re going to be playing teams for the second time around, and your preparation has to be good. I thought our preparation was good, our focus was good and I thought we did a real good job early in the game,” said Raso after the Laurier win.

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McMaster has now reeled off five straight wins, with the team topping 80 points in each game. Raso says a move to put Cam Michaud and Keenan Jeppesen at the power forward and centre positions in the starting lineup has made the team tough to stop in the open court.

“Because we’re a little smaller up front using Keenan and Cam together, it makes us fast as hell. Very few teams have got post players who can run the floor with us.”

The Marauders lit up the Golden Hawks for a red-hot 53 per cent shooting clip, while torching the Warriors with 52 per cent shooting. Keenan Jeppesen posted 28 points against Laurier, while Tyrell Vernon cashed in a season-high 27 points against Waterloo.

Raso also noted that the hot shooting streak coincides with the Marauders finally getting comfortable with their current lineup.

“We know our recipe now, and it took us a while to get back to playing this good basketball. I think right now we’ve just got to be consistent… if you play well in February, you get to play in March.”

The recipe Raso speaks of includes forcing turnovers with a high-intensity defence, and creating scoring opportunities in transition. With speedy playmakers like Jermaine DeCosta and Paul Hart, as well as skilled finishers Jeppesen and Vernon, teams often fear committing turnovers and giving the Marauders life in the open court.

“[Our offence comes from] running off of defence. We’re running off of steals, we’re running off of rebounds and that’s where we score our easy baskets. We are small, but we’ve got guys who can fly,” said Raso after the Laurier game, which saw the Golden Hawks commit 30 turnovers.

In order to play their way into the CIS national tournament, the Marauders will need to get past a bevy of quality OUA teams. Lakehead, Windsor, Ottawa and Carleton, the defending national champions, will all be fighting to come out of the OUA. But with McMaster on a modest winning streak and returning to their preseason form, none of those teams will be looking forward to protecting the ball and getting back on defence against the Marauders in March.