The Warriors men's basketball team earned a buzzer beater victory on Saturday afternoon as they edged the McMaster Marauders 95-94 in their final game of the 2010-11 season.
With the win the Warriors moved into a three-way tie with Guelph and Brock for the sixth and final playoff spot with Guelph winning the tie-breaker with a 3-1 record in the games played between the three teams.
The first quarter was evenly matched as the lead changed hands several times before the Warriors would take a slight lead of five points, 21-16, going into the second quarter. Scott Laws (Gormley, Ont.) would continue to draw fouls for the Marauders and the home team would take a lead of just one point at halftime.
In the third, the Marauders came out flying as they scored 30 points and at one point had a twelve point lead. Matthew Wilusz (Hamilton, Ont.) was big on the boards for McMaster with 12 and Victor Raso (Hamilton, Ont.) contributed 15 points off the bench.
The Marauders built a ten point lead to start the fourth quarter and looked like they might pull away, but the Warriors stayed in it. Waterloo's Jordan Hannah (Kitchener, Ont.) had a game-high 24 points for the Warriors and would lead the charge in the final minutes of the game.
After Waterloo tied it up at 77, the Marauders would go on a 11-0 run to move ahead 88-77 with a little over three minutes to play.
With McMaster up by nine, 91-82, with two and a half minutes to go the Warriors kept cutting into the Marauder lead and would get to within four. After McMaster made a free throw to make it 94-88, Alan Goodhoofd (Oakville, Ont.) would hit a jumper, and Luke Kieswetter (Waterloo, Ont.) would grab the steal on the ensuing possession setting up a Hannah three pointer that cut the McMaster lead to just one, 94-93.
Waterloo would then foul Jordan Tew (Greensville, Ont.) who would miss both free throws with 11 seconds to go. Waterloo would grab the rebound and scramble to the other end to get a shot off. Wayne Bridge (North York, Ont.) would pick up the ball and hit a jumper with less than two seconds left on the clock to give Waterloo the 95-94 victory.
Laws scored double digits in the loss with 15 points as well as Nathan Pelech (Mississauga, Ont.) with ten.
Goodhoofd was a big factor in Waterloo's win a 22 points and 17 rebounds double-double performance.
The OUA playoffs get underway on Wednesday February 23 with the new OUA final four format scheduled for March 4 and 5 at McMaster where a new Wilson Cup winner will be crowned.
