Lancers hang on to beat McMaster

The University of Windsor Lancers Men’s basketball team put their number one spot on the line at the St. Denis Centre Jan. 23.

The Lancers stormed out of the gate with two first quarter dunks to set the tone early.  After one quarter they led 21-19.  The Lancers applied the full-court press on the McMaster Marauders and forced several turnovers to increase the lead to eight by the end of the half.

Enrico Diloreto led the team in points at the half and said this sort of comeback effort was nothing new.

“We just had to settle down,” said Diloreto. We’ve had teams make runs at us before and we handled it well.”

In the third quarter, they led by as many as 15 points, appearing to begin to put the game out of reach, as the Marauders turned the ball over on three straight possessions early in the quarter.

The Marauders coaching staff called a timeout and pulled the team to the corner of the floor to, not-so-quietly, let his team know they had to push harder if they were to win the game.

The timeout paid its dividends as the Marauders narrowed the deficit to just five points with about a minute left in the third quarter.

However, the Lancers would retake a nine-point lead after three quarters.

The drama continued into the fourth quarter as the Marauders would pull to within four points with 21.1 seconds left on the clock.  This was the closest margin since the first half, but the Lancers escaped with the 80-73 victory.

Lancers head coach Chris Oliver said the back-and-forth momentum is to be expected against a team like the Marauders, especially after beating them by 19 on their home court in their last meeting.

“It’s a game of runs and you’ve got to answer the runs,” said Oliver. “We know they’re going to punch back, but we should be able to withstand that and not allow it come as close as it did.”

The Lancers are currently hold the first place position in the West Division and are ranked fifth in the country.

“When you’re nationally ranked, you’re going to get everyone’s best game,” said Oliver.

Lien Phillip, who led the team in scoring with 16 points, also said the team makes an effort to play aggressive and dunk as often as possible to impose their will.

At the end of the day, the Lancers came out on top and finished strong in the dying seconds.