Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 It wasn't the weekend the Nipissing Lakers men's basketball team was hoping for when they got on the bus to hit the road.

The Lakers dropped a pair of games, falling 80-75 to the York Lions Friday night in Toronto, before coming up short, 87-73 in Hamilton, to the McMaster Marauders Saturday to close out the weekend.

While the game was even for the most part throughout the 40 minutes, the Lions used a big second quarter to grab the lead – one they wouldn't relinquish.

After being up a point through the first, the Lions extended their lead to 10 points at halftime.

Down 49-39 entering the third quarter, the Lakers cut their deficit by three and pushed in the fourth, outscoring the Lions 22-20, but ran out of time to complete the comeback.

Leading the way offensively for the Lakers was David Bokanga and Noah LaPierre with 15 points each, while Darnaz Mabanza had 12 and Ricardo Neves scored 11 in the contest.

A dominant second half wasn't enough for the Lakers Saturday as a very slow start put them behind the eight ball early on.

McMaster led the Lakers 26-11 after one and 50-21 at halftime.

Nipissing bounced back in a big way, scoring 52 points in the second half to close the gap, as they outscored the Marauders by 15, but their first half deficit was too much to overcome, as they fell short once again.

Muktar Mohamed had a double-double, posting 19 points and 13 rebounds, while LaPierre had 15, D'Andre Johnson added 12 and Hazara Jawanda had 10 in the contest.

Up next, Nipissing returns home to host the Lakehead Thunderwolves on Saturday night.