Mac women look for strong finish

Maggie Cogger-Orr

Silhouette Staff

In a rivalry that will get any McMaster student’s blood boiling, the Western Mustangs rolled into town Wednesday night, up against a Marauder team coming off two frustrating losses.

Fortunately for those fans, the Marauders were able to take out some of that frustration on the Mustangs and rolled to a 77-63 win Wednesday night at the Burridge Gym.

McMaster looked eager to get back to their winning ways, coming out with an 11-3 lead early. Western would battle back though to bring the maroon lead to three, before Hailey Milligan hit a buzzer beater to make in 19-14 McMaster at the end of the first quarter.

McMaster’s strength would lie in their ability to move the ball around the perimeter, but they at times struggled to rebound offensively under the basket. Western would capitalize on these defensive rebounds and quickly move the ball down court and drive to the basket. These quick transitions seemed to overwhelm the Marauders and saw the Mustangs take the lead 23-21.

It was then that Taylor Chiarot would take matters into her own hands, hitting four consecutive shots (a three, two field goals and a foul shot) for 8 points to swing Marauders back into the lead 29-23.

The second quarter would see both teams struggle with fouls, as offensive calls stalled the Marauders’ momentum, and Western would reach the team limit of five fouls with several minutes remaining in the half.  Both teams shot an impressive 85.7% from the free throw line, and McMaster would head into the change room up 37-33.

The second half would open with open with some good ball movement by McMaster and seem them extend their lead to ten points with five minutes left in the third quarter. The teams would trade field goals back and forth, but Western could not close the gap and Mac would finish the fourth up by 11.

The Marauders would be too much for the Mustangs to handle in the fourth, as the ladies in purple looked tired and could not keep up. This, along with the Marauders shooting 54.5 per cent from three-point range, would lead to McMaster pulling away over the course of the quarter, with leads of as much as 21 points.

McMaster had a well-balanced offensive showing on the day as Chiarot had 22 points, Milligan had a huge double-double with 18 points and 16 rebounds, and Liz Burns chipped in with 17 points of her own. For her efforts, Burns would grab Player of the Game honours for Mac.

The victory puts McMaster back over .500 with a record of 10-9, leading into the final stretch of the regular season with three games remaining. The first of those three sees them take on the Guelph Gryphons at the Mitchell Athletic Centre on Feb. 11, a team who they held off to beat 66-63 a few weeks ago.

When asked what they needed to do heading into the last few weeks of their season, Burns indicated that her team would look to build on the strengths shown in their home victory.

“We have to keep rolling with this momentum, keep on playing to our strengths:  fast breaks, getting the ball to our posts,” said Burns. “Today was a great game, our perimeter game was really strong, we had so many players

putting up points for us -- it was definitely a big team win.”

The 10 days will be make or break for the Marauders as they look finish their season off on a winning note heading into the post season.  The finish off their season with a home game against Laurier on Feb. 18.