The top-ranked Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team came out victorious on the road in their season-opening weekend Nov. 11-12, defeating the McMaster Marauders and Brock Badgers in what fifth-year guard Elliot Thompson called “a very good step in the right direction.”
Carleton opened the regular season Nov. 11 with a a hard-fought 77-61 win against the Marauders in Hamilton, Ont.
But it wasn’t an ideal start for the defending champions.
After a sloppy first quarter that ended with the teams tied at 16, the Ravens went into halftime hanging on to a slim four-point lead.
“We were definitely a little sloppy on the defensive end,” said first-year forward Justin Shaver.
Thanks to a game-high 27 points from second-year guard Philip Scrubb, along with a stingier defence, the Ravens eventually managed to secure the victory.
“We started focusing on our fundamentals and finally got to doing what we wanted to do as a team,” said fifth-year guard Cole Hobin.
The Ravens built on those fundamentals the following evening with a dominant 98-56 win against the Brock Badgers in St. Catharines, Ont. Four Carleton players, Scrubb, Thompson, Willy Manigat and Kevin Churchill reached double digits in the victory.
Thompson tallied 22 points but credited his teammates for his success.
“Guys like Willy [Manigat] and [Scrubb] get into the lane and make it pretty easy for me to hit open shots,” he said.
Manigat, a fellow veteran guard, led the Ravens with 23 points.
“A lot of the older guys led the pack and everyone got on board,” Shaver said.
The Ravens shot just under 50 per cent from the field and recorded an impressive 48 per cent from three-point range.
“We stepped up and hit our shots,” Thompson said. “We remembered to just keep shooting and believe in ourselves.”
The Ravens’ defence was also back in its regular form, out-rebounding the Badgers 38-19 and holding their leading scorer, Jameson Tipping, to 15 points.
“We put a lot of focus on our defense,” Hobin said. “We really didn’t let them get anything going at all.”
The importance of defence was a sentiment echoed by the whole team.
“Defence is always most important,” Thompson said. “We base our team around defensive rebounds.”
Despite having another strong team this year, the Ravens, who are aiming for their eighth championship in 10 years, know they cannot just sit back and try to cruise through the season.
“We need to keep pushing each other everyday, whether that means watching film, communicating with each other, or staying after to practice to get up those extra shots,” Thompson said.