Room to grow for Mac men

What you missed in 2016:

A 12-game win streak came to an end as the Mac men dropped four games to No. 6 Brock, No. 4 Ottawa and No. 1 Carleton before the break.

While the games against the Badgers were decided by just four points, both saw Mac struggle to contest with Brock’s lockdown defence in the dying minutes of the fourth quarter, giving up two costly turnovers and a block to set their record back two games.

Second-year guard Chris Thompson was a bright spot for the Marauders, coming off the bench to put up 34 points and seven steals in the two-game series.

In Ottawa, Mac fell behind early in the first and struggled to regain control against powerful Gee-Gee and Raven teams.

Third-year forward Connor Gilmore was strong offensively in both contests, and currently sits fifth in Ontario University Athletics with 20.2 points per game.

The team rebounded with a solid 90-75 win to start the New Year against Nipissing. They stumbled to a loss the next night, dropping 95-87 result against a Laurentian team who is still finding their groove after a hazing scandal resulted in key players being suspended to start the season.

Defence continues to be a talking point for the Mac men, who have struggled to contain teams early and make critical stops late.

Against Laurentian, McMaster fell behind by 10 points in the first quarter, while relying on fifth-year forward Rohan Boney’s 14 points to tie the game at 20 apiece.

Later in the fourth, they managed to pull within three to make it a one possession game, before dropping back 11 until the final three minutes.

Boney would go on to score a game high 32 points on the night, but the Voyageurs finished with more assists and bench points.

Moving into 2017, the Marauders will to look to establish some momentum against more local OUA competition as they try to position themselves for a playoff run.

Mac has played one of the toughest schedules in the country, let alone the OUA, so their 4-5 conference record has to be taken with a grain of salt. If Mac split the series with Brock, this is a different conversation.

Expect to see more big offensive performances from the high-powered scoring duo of Gilmore and Boney, with third-year guard David McCulloch looking to make a big impact from the point guard position.