The Hamilton Spectator

Mac gets its first real test

- SCOTT RADLEY

Winning the first two games of the regular season was nice. Remaining undefeated from the start of the pre-season and extending the winning streak to 17 was lovely. Reinforcin­g the trust of voters who said they were the third-best basketball team in the country was great, too.

But Wednesday night matters more than any of it. By a long, long way.

When the McMaster Marauders take on Brock in a men’s game at Burridge Gym — tip-off is at 8 p.m. — it will be the first chance to prove something against a powerhouse program in the province of powerhouse­s.

The Badgers come into the game as the eighth-ranked team in Canada and fourth-ranked in Ontario which has half the top-10 teams in the country. Last week, McMaster head coach Amos Connolly explained that he wouldn’t know whether his side’s terrific pre-season was an accurate gauge on how good they were until they faced some of the provincial monsters. This is that first real test. Mac kept its record unblemishe­d when it opened the season with a pair of home-court victories (82-76 and 62-56) over Lakehead on the weekend. Brock, meanwhile, kicked off its campaign with a 71-69 win over Toronto.

On the women’s side, the nationally second-ranked Marauders — they jumped a spot from last week — also swept Lakehead with scores of 63-58 and 75-65. McMaster alltime leading scorer Danielle Boiago set a personal single-game record with 31 points in the opener, earning her female athlete-of-the-week honours.

The women face Brock — which beat Toronto 67-49 in their only game of the season so far — at 6 p.m.

Across town, Mohawk College’s women’s team beat Sault 82-40 and 69-48 on the weekend to improve to 4-0 this season. It’s earned them the second-place ranking in Ontario. On the men’s side, two wins over Sault — 97-66 and 82-72 — evened the provincial­ly 10th-ranked Mountainee­rs’ record at 2-2.

And at Redeemer, a 61-49 loss to St. Clair College was the Royals’ women’s team’s first defeat of the season. They won their first three games. Meanwhile, the men dropped to 0-2 with a 98-82 loss to St. Clair on Saturday.

Redeemer’s next home game is Saturday when 3-2 Fanshawe visits. Tip-off is at 6 p.m. for the women and 8 for the men.

Neither Mohawk team plays at home again until Nov. 29.

sradley@thespec.com 905-526-2440 | @radleyatth­espec Spectator columnist Scott Radley hosts The Scott Radley Show weeknights 7-9 on 900CHML.

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