VANCOUVER — The Carleton Ravens are headed to the U Sports Final 8 championship final after dominating the uOttawa Gee-Gees 84-60 in their semifinal matchup on March 15 at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
Carleton leaned on its depth, as all nine Ravens who touched the court put at least three points on the board against their crosstown rivals. Teresa Donato’s 17 points led the way for the Ravens, while Tatyanna Burke earned player of the game honours with 16 points and nine boards on the night.
Only a week earlier, the Gee-Gees toppled the conference-leading Ravens 70-61 in the OUA final, spoiling Carleton’s shot at a Critelli Cup three-peat.
“It’s personal in a sense, because it definitely lit a fire under us,” Ravens centre Nathalie Francis said. “But we just wanted to really play for ourselves and do what we knew we could do and prove it to ourselves, more than anything.”
This time, the Ravens made a dominant and undeniable statement: that the Critelli Cup loss would not define their season.
Carleton’s defence was nearly impossible to penetrate for the OUA champions. The Ravens forced 11 turnovers from their crosstown rivals in the first quarter alone to take a commanding 26-7 lead. Carleton head coach Dani Sinclair said the Ravens dug into a few motivations for their early defensive dominance, one of them being the OUA final defeat.
“Just probably a little bit pissed off about what happened last week,” Sinclair said. “And just being really confident in themselves in the game plan and sticking to it.”
Sinclair made a good bet on her team’s depth early on, which paid big dividends as the Ravens’ bench players combined for 21 points before halftime.
Adding to that depth, Ravens rookie forward Abany Deng joined the battle in the second quarter. She got on the board almost immediately, sending her teammates on the bench into a frenzy.
“She was injured the first half of the season, so it was great to see her doing so well,” Francis said. “We’re all just really proud of her.”
But in a turnaround third quarter, the Gee-Gees made a serious case for a comeback, as they nearly halved Carleton’s 27-point lead to just 14 points. If the Garnet and Grey wanted to get back into the game, they still needed to step it up even further in the fourth quarter.
“I was really, really happy for us to fight back in and to win the second half,” Gee-Gees head coach Rose-Anne Joly said. “It’s just that it was too late at that point.”
It was the Ravens who made a stronger push out of the final intermission, decisively outscoring their rival 25-15 in the fourth quarter to relegate the Gee-Gees to the bronze medal match.
“I’m still very proud of being the Gee-Gees and I wanted the girls to understand that, man, we’re at nationals,” Joly said. “So there’s nothing to be ashamed of, right?”
The Ravens are set for a U Sports championship rematch with the Saskatchewan Huskies the following night at 7 p.m. EST. The Gee-Gees will play for bronze against the host UBC Thunderbirds at 3 p.m. EST.
With an animated Sinclair at the helm, the Ravens are a well-oiled machine dead-set on following the game plan in pursuit of a third straight national championship.
“It just comes down to being prepared in the moment and having a good game plan and being able to adjust,” Sinclair said. “I really try to live by this — that’s why I’m a little bit psycho on every single possession.”
Featured photo by Janson Duench/The Charlatan.
