The Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team were just three minutes away from booking their spot in the OUA semi-finals when an unexpected fire alarm halted play, sending a packed Ravens’ Nest to brave the outdoors on wintry Saturday night.
Although the game already featured frequent timeouts, fouls and an unexpected fire alarm, the Ravens prevailed 73–58 over the Lakehead Thunderwolves in their OUA quarterfinal matchup.
“I’ve been coaching and playing for 35 years, I have never had a fire alarm during the game,” Ravens head coach Taffe Charles said after the game. “We’ve dealt with a lot of adversity this year, and maybe that was one of those things we’ve dealt with.”
The Ravens’ committee scoring and strong defensive stops on key players propelled them past the Thunderwolves in the quarterfinal. They held their opponents to 28 per cent shooting and limited the OUA’s leading scorer, Harold Santacruz, to 13 points.
“Everybody’s trying to stop their best player,” Charles said. “Like a boxer, you have to give him a lot of body blows and hope he misses a shot he wouldn’t miss.”
Whether it was double-teaming or planting veteran forward Louth-Mohamed Coulibaly against Santacruz’s size, the Ravens held the Thunderwolves’ X-factor to 5-for-14 shooting. Their focus was apparent from the opening tipoff.
“Just gotta continue to find a way and dig in, stick together as a team and find a way to come out with a win,” Ravens guard Marjok Okado said of shutting down Santacruz.
Okado and Coulibaly teamed up to jumpstart the Ravens offense, picking up the squad’s first points of the contest en route to a quick 15-4 run. Almost everything dropped for the home squad, as they opened the quarter shooting 6 for 7.
Emanuel Milon joined the scoring party in his first game back after being sidelined with an injury hours before the Ravens Capital Hoops matchup. The Ravens’ third-best scorer and rebounder finished with six points and five rebounds in restricted minutes.
“Milon [coming] back helped us. I mean, he’s not 100 per cent, but you know what, nobody’s 100 per cent at this time of year,” Charles said. “Just gotta suit up and give us a little bit of minutes, which is nice as well.”
Even though contributions came from across the lineup, the fouls in the opening quarter plagued the Ravens, putting the Thunderwolves in the bonus for just under half of the frame. The Ravens finished with 21 fouls, sending their opponents to the line early in multiple quarters.
“It definitely gives them a lot of free points for sure, staying undisciplined,” Okado said after the game. “But they started to pick it back up by the end.”
Headlined by Dylan Kayijuka’s six points on 100 per cent shooting, the Ravens led 25–14 after the opening frame. Kayijuka continued his perfect shooting in the second quarter, helping guide the Ravens’ slowing offense.
Kayijuka finished the game with a team-high 15 points.
Despite a seemingly strong offense to start, the Ravens posted less than half as many points in the second than the first. While their defense could mostly compensate, the Thunderwolves quietly snuck back into the game, outscoring the Ravens 16-12 in the quarter.
Kicked off by Marcos Alonso Hernan’s desperate bucket from beyond half court, the Thunderwolves generated momentum to pull within 7. The Ravens led 37-30 at the half.
With momentum see-sawing, neither team could take control in the second half. As both sides floundered to generate a decisive push, a fire alarm in the dying minutes gave both teams an extended timeout after reported issues at the Athletics Tim Hortons.
Although the Ravens led by eight and began to take charge of the pace of play, Charles and Okado were unfazed.
“It was nice to have the lead and have the fire alarm go off, but I think we stayed as warm as we possibly could,” Charles said. “It was a little bit easier to adjust to that.”
“It didn’t affect us,” Okado added. “Go handle business as we gotta do.”
The Ravens didn’t let up after the delay, coming up with timely defensive stops and outscoring the Thunderwolves 22–13 in the final quarter to put the game out of reach.
With the win, the Ravens advance to the OUA semifinals, where they’ll face the Toronto Varsity Blues at the Ravens’ Nest on Wednesday night. The 11th-seeded Varsity Blues advanced after upsetting the third-place Western Mustangs.
The Ravens bested the Varsity Blues 80-50 last month but aren’t taking their opponents lightly this time around.
“We just got to wipe that from our memory banks — (the Varsity Blues are) a much better team,” Charles said. “They had to beat two good teams on their floor, so they’re going to come in here with a lot of momentum.”
A semifinals win rewards a ticket to the U SPORTS National Championships, with Charles hoping to bring Okado back home to his hometown of Calgary.
“Our mission right now is to get him to Calgary — we just need to win one more game and get to the nationals,” Charles said.
Tip off is 8 p.m.
Featured image by Nathan Cox/the Charlatan
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