With 20.3 seconds left on the clock, Ravens guard Aiden Warnholtz rushes behind the three-point line. When he receives the pass, it’s automatic—tap the feet, raise the arms and shoot. Hold the right arm outstretched, flick the hand downward.
When the shot lands, the net ripples and Warnholtz jogs backwards down the court. Teammate Grant Shephard, beaming, high-fives him. It’s Warnholtz’s 28th and final point of Friday night’s 103-89 win over the Queen’s Gaels.
Warnholtz’s re-emergence as the Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team’s leading offensive force led the Ravens to two huge wins against Queen’s Gaels and the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks this past weekend, breathing new life into the Ravens and ending a rare two-game losing streak.
Prior to Friday, Warnholtz had struggled in 2023. He led the team in points per game in 2022 but had run aground in the new year, scoring less than 10 points in three of four games between Jan. 13 and 21.
“He didn’t play well,” Carleton head coach Taffe Charles said on Jan. 13 after Warnholtz posted just five points, along with five rebounds and five assists.
Without Warnholtz performing at his best, Carleton’s lack of depth was exposed. The Ravens lost back-to-back games to the University of Toronto and Toronto Metropolitan University on Jan. 20 and 21, only the second time in the last 20 years Carleton has lost twice in a row. Carleton fell to third in the nation for the first time since 2016.
The pressure mounted. Warnholtz tried to put the team on his shoulders, Charles said.
“We haven’t supported him well enough … He’s starting to do things too much, he’s not trusting his teammates and not by his fault,” Charles said Friday. “People [need to spread out] for him better, decentralize. How about giving him the ball when he doesn’t have to dribble 19,000 times?”
Warnholtz pinpointed the issue as desperation to make shots.
“My shot wasn’t exactly falling,” Warnholtz said Sunday. “I was trying to force some [shots] … that were less likely to go in for me anyway, because I felt like I was trying to score to help my team out.”
Warnholtz said he reviewed film with Charles prior to this weekend and changed his approach before the games. He said he focused on taking the shots he wanted to take, and even if he missed, he’d be getting good looks.
The change worked. After his 28 points against Queen’s on Friday, Warnholtz exploded for 36 points in a 86-73 win over Ontario Tech in Oshawa, Ont. He set a new regular season career high in the process.
In both games, Carleton started quickly. Against Queen’s, the fourth-ranked team in the nation, the Ravens flew to a 7-0 start with sharp passing and efficient shooting. They led 31-24 at the end of the first quarter, then 52-49 at the half.
While the Gaels tied the game 77-77 early in the fourth quarter, Carleton pushed past them for the win.
Against Ontario Tech, Carleton put up big runs at the start of each quarter—including a 15-point run to start the second half that proved the difference in the 13-point win.
Outside of Warnholtz, Shephard also put up big numbers. He posted a double-double in both games, combining for 39 points and 25 rebounds.
Carleton’s bounceback weekend sets the stage for the Capital Hoops Classic against the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees on Friday. It will be the first Capital Hoops at TD Place since 2020, and with uOttawa ranked third in the nation, the game is sure to carry significant weight in the standings and in both teams’ psyche.
The Ontario University Athletics (OUA) east division is a wide open three-horse race between the Ravens, Gaels and Gee-Gees. It’s difficult to tell who will come out on top and earn an automatic bye into the second round of the OUA playoffs.
“There are good teams out there,” Charles said Friday. “There’s a lot of parity in the league.”
Featured image by Tayssir Benchoubane.
