There's not much more the Nipissing Lakers men's basketball team can do.

They put together 40 very good minutes of basketball and put on a show all night, but in the end, fell just short of the win, falling to the McMaster Marauders 90-86 Saturday night.

A slow start put the Lakers behind in the first quarter, as they trailed 26-16 after the opening 10 minutes of play.

The teams played a very even second quarter and both posted 22 points and at the halftime break, McMaster held a slight 48-38 advantage.

Nipissing cut into that lead in the third, outscoring McMaster by one, 24-23 and that set up a thrilling finish to the game.

In the end, the Lakers outscored the Marauders 24-19 and even took the lead late in the quarter, but couldn't hold on.

The game was tied 86-86 with 26 seconds remaining and the Marauders scored the final four points in the last half-minute to claim the win.

Both teams left it all on the court in a physical matchup.

Six played hit double digits in points tonight, led by Will Tran with 26. Justin Hill scored 14, Danny Lukusa had 12, Shandon Ashitei and Justin Shaver each had 11 and Quintin Ashitei had 10.

Nipissing hits the road and heads to Ottawa for a pair of games next weekend to close out the semester.