TORONTO — The Ryerson Rams are set to kick off their 2020 schedule this week with a road game against the No. 7 McMaster Marauders before returning home to host the Western Mustangs on Ryerson's annual OBA Day on Saturday. 

The Rams return to the court in 2020 with a 5-5 first-semester record, tied with the Brock Badgers for third in the division. The team ended off 2019 with a 77-62 win over Laurier on November 30 before enjoying some rest in December. 

Leading the way for Ryerson so far this season are Tevaun Kokko (Markham, Ont.) and Jayden Frederick (Scarborough, Ont.), who have averaged 22.1 and 21.1 points per game, respectively. Keevon Small (Montreal, Que.) has also been a key piece for the Rams in 2019, collecting 9.1 rebounds per game and shooting 91.7 percent from the free-throw line.

With a tight race in the central division and a difficult second semester schedule looming, the Rams will need to make a few key improvements moving forward through the remainder of the regular season prior to the start of playoffs in mid-February. 

The Rams will resume league play on Wednesday in Hamilton as they head to Burridge Gymnasium to face the nationally-ranked Marauders at 8:00 p.m. McMaster, a division rival, ranks second in the Central with an 8-2 record on the year. The Marauders have dropped games to only No. 6 Lakehead and No. 9 Laurentian thus far and will present the Rams with quite a difficult matchup early on in 2020. 

The Marauders are an extremely high scoring squad and have the best rebounding numbers in the league. The Rams have an edge from beyond the arc, though, so it will be crucial that Ryerson's three-point shooters are out to play in Wednesday's matchup. 

Ryerson returns home to host Western at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday at the Mattamy Athletic Centre. The Mustangs sit first in their division with a 10-2 record on the year, dropping contests to Nipissing and Laurentian at the start of November. Western is similar to McMaster in that they're also very high scoring, creating problems for the Rams in the paint. Western is also strong defensively, and again the Rams will need to capitalize on their three-point shooting to gain an edge against this strong Mustangs team.

Saturday's clash against Western also marks Ryerson's annual OBA Day. OBA club teams can register to receive free tickets to the men's and women's matinee matchups by heading over to mattamyathleticcentre.ca.