GUELPH, ON – Good times are coming for the Guelph Gryphons women's basketball team.
 
They're not here yet, but head coach Mark Walton says they'll learn from the adversity they've faced this season.
 
"McMaster's a really good team," Walton said after his team's 95-57 loss on Saturday to the No. 1-ranked Marauders at the Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre.
 
"They're really well drilled, they work hard, and they pass the ball really well. And we're just not ready to play at that level."
 
The Gryphs knew they were in for a tough contest against the first-place team in their division and top-ranked team in the country, but they weren't necessarily prepared for the Marauders to go on an 18-2 run to start the game.
 
They also didn't help their own cause by shooting only 11 per cent from the field in the first quarter. By the end of the frame, the score was 24-7.
 
"We started slow and we were intimidated early," Walton said. "When you get behind, you give up a lot of good shots. We're such a young team, and we pushed the panic button a little early."
 
The Gryphs opened the second quarter on a 7-0 run to narrow the gap for a short while. They couldn't maintain the momentum, though, and Mac held a 49-25 lead at halftime.
 
The third quarter was fairly even, with Mac outscoring the home team 19-18, but the visitors ran away in the fourth quarter, pouring in points down the stretch.
 
Despite the lopsided loss, Walton was happy with the spark that his team showed for stretches, particularly from some of his bench players. He cited second-year forward Abbey Clark as one example.
 
"She was aggressive right until the end of the game," he said of the Ancaster, ON, native, who led the Gryphs with 13 points and also grabbed four rebounds. "It was a treat to see how hard she played."
 
"And Ivana (second-year guard Ivana Vujadinovic) was just as tough as you could possibly want a player to be. She gave us great minutes and great enthusiasm, and got everybody going. I was thrilled with her game."
 
Vujadinovic, a native of Burlington, ON, had nine points and collected eight rebounds. Second-year forward Ashley Wheeler, from Stratford, ON, added 10 points and eight boards.
 
"We have to learn how to sustain that fight and spark for the whole game," Walton said. "Eventually I think those things will come, but it's very much a process, and we said from Day 1 that it's going to be a process. We have to believe in the process, and not worry about the outcome of games."
 
The coach lamented the absence of starters Sarah Holmes, who is ill, and Quincy Sickles-Jarvis, who was able to play only three minutes on Saturday due to a pulled groin muscle that's been bothering her for a couple of weeks.
 
"But I'm not making excuses at all," he said. "The other kids have to learn that when adversity hits, everybody else has to step up and pull forward.
 
"A number of them figured out today that they have to be able to do that stuff, and if they don't, there's consequences for that."
 
The Gryphs fall to 1-9, last in the four-team OUA Central Division. The first-place Marauders improve to 10-1.
 
Guelph is off to Ottawa for two road games next weekend, and returns to the Gryphons Athletics Centre on Friday, Jan. 27 against Algoma, and on Saturday, Jan. 28 against Brock.