CALGARY — The Carleton Ravens men’s basketball are one step closer to a national championship.
In a quarterfinal matchup at the U SPORTS Final 8 on Friday afternoon, the sixth-seeded Ravens defeated the third-seeded Laval Rouge et Or 86-69 after a fourth-quarter push at the Jack Simpson Gym.
“Always happy to win,” Ravens head coach Taffe Charles said. “We didn’t come here to win one game, (we) came here to win all three games. But you know what, you can’t go forward unless you win the first one.”
Laval, coming off a recent RSEQ provincial championship, will play UBC in the consolation semifinal on Saturday.
For Carleton, it’s the team’s 26th appearance at the national tournament and their first since 2023, as the Ravens hope to avenge a disappointing loss in the OUA playoff finals to the TMU Bold.
“It’s hard for me not to get emotional,” Ravens forward Cedric Mbiaba said after the game. “Coming from Laurentian, I never even had the chance to win a playoff game. Now on Carleton, I get to get this far, from winning playoff games to getting to the Wilson Cup to now winning my first national game. That’s words you can’t describe. This is an incredible feeling.”
The last time the Ravens defeated the Laval Rouge et Or at the U SPORTS Men’s Basketball Championship was in 2003 in the semifinals. Carleton won the game 57–54 and eventually went on to capture the program’s first national championship.
Looking to repeat history, Aubrey Dorey-Havens got the Ravens started, pushing them to an early 8–5 lead after the teams went back and forth early.
“When I’m confident and getting everybody in the right place and still being able to shoot, attack, play, make room for other people, that’s when I’m at my best,” Dorey-Havens said. “We’re ready to go.”
From there, the Ravens looked in control, finishing the first quarter with 24 points and leading 24–16, shooting more than 52 per cent in the paint for a strong start.
Carleton held at least a six-point advantage for almost the entire first half until a couple of free throws by Laval Rouge et Or brought them within four with a minute left in the second quarter.
Laval kept pushing, ending the quarter with 22 points but still trailing Ravens 41–38 at the half.
With another 24-point quarter, the Ravens kept pace in the third, earning rebounds and capitalizing off turnovers to hold their lead.
The teams entered the final quarter with Carleton up 65-55.
Unfortunately for the Ravens, Calgary’s own MJ Okado went down just under two minutes into the fourth quarter and laid on the court for several minutes before being carried off by his trainer and teammates, unable to put weight on either leg.
His large cheering squad in the crowd, holding up blown-up pictures of his face, shouted words of encouragement as he left the game. Okado had been having a strong performance with 11 points and three successful shots from the arc.
He returned to watch the final minute with tape over his right knee.
“One of our themes was, send MJ home,” Charles said. “That was for our playoff run … It’s unfortunate, heartbroken for him. I don’t know if he will be ready for tomorrow, but it’s one of those things, sport is like that, right? It hurts. And the reality is, unfortunately, you got to move on.”
A three by Carleton’s Dylan Kayijuka prompted Laval into a timeout with five minutes left in the game, as the Ravens began pulling away.
After the pause in play, the Ravens got right back at it, locking Laval down defensively before adding a couple of points from the line and a perfectly placed jump shot by Tyler Brown to finish off the Ravens’ best 12-point run of the fourth quarter, putting them up 19 points over Laval.
“We’re deeper than them,” Charles said of Laval. “I think the biggest thing that we wanted to try and get to is a 40-minute game. We wanted to make sure that we wore theme down, even though it didn’t look like that right away.”
Laval, a young squad with only two fourth-year players, struggled to match Carleton’s depth. The Rouge et Or finished with just 13 points off the bench compared to the Ravens’ 42.
Next, it’s another collision course for TMU and Carleton, who will meet in the semifinal in an OUA final rematch. TMU defeated Carleton 66–56 in the Wilson Cup, the OUA championship game.
“They had a huge home court advantage,” Charles said of the OUA final. “They were really fired up for that game and we had some young guys who didn’t handle it as well as they should have, but they’ve learned from that experience.”
As Carleton left the floor post-game, Okado rolled out in a wheelchair and placed Carleton’s name on the championship bracket board in the semifinal slot, while his teammates cheered behind him.
“He’s such an essential part of everything we do,” Dorey-Havens said. “Offensively, defensively. I’ve been playing with him for three years now and he puts everything into the game, everything. So for him to get hurt in his home city, it’s tough, but we just got to play for him.”
Carleton will have to face U SPORTS player of the year Aaron Rhooms again in the Final 8 semifinals.
“We just gotta keep it simple,” Aubrey Dorey-Havens added. “Last weekend we were trying to do a whole bunch of new stuff — we’re just going to go and keep it simple.”
On Rhooms, Dorey-Havens added: “We have guys who we can throw at him. For sure, he’s a really good player, but we have guys who can throw at him to be physical. Just being physical is the main thing, and then make sure we get out to the shooters.”
TMU beat UBC earlier in the day 97-91 in a massive comeback performance to advance.
“Sometimes, when you lose, you realize that, okay, that wasn’t working, so you got to try something different,” Charles said. “Then we have to figure out what we’re going to do tomorrow as well.”
Featured image by Zoe Pierce/the Charlatan
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