The Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team will take on the Dalhousie University Tigers in tonight’s U Sports semi final matchup at 8:00 p.m. AST (7:00 p.m. EST).
The Ravens moved on to the semi-final with last night’s 100-60 win over the University of Alberta Golden Bears.
The Ravens’ performance was on the back of strong three-point shooting with three players scoring at least four three-point field goals.
Guard Troy Reid-Knight shot 100 per cent from beyond the arch. Guard Isiah Osborne, a new addition to the team since last year’s nationals, led the team in scoring going 4-6 from range.
First-team All-Canadian forward Eddie Ekiyor controlled the ball well against the Golden Bears as well – scoring 20 points on 8-13 shooting.
The running and passing lanes were often clogged for Ekiyor by Alberta so getting him the ball was an issue. The Ravens favoured swings to the aforementioned strong deep ball shooters in order to counter the Golden Bears defence.
The three-point shooting was still impacted by Ekiyor as his play inside was earning him double teams. The pinching defender left a shooter unguarded for the Ravens to capitalize on.
Either way, the Ravens offence runs through Ekiyor. Carleton’s humble all-star could be the difference in every game he plays in during the rest of the tournament. Expect Ekiyor to be used the same in tonight’s game against the Tigers.
Tale of the tape
The hometown Dalhousie Tigers advanced over the University of British Columbia (UBC) Thunderbirds last night with a 75-64 victory. The game was as close as five points with two minutes left, until the Tigers made some clutch shots—most notably, a seismic dunk from forward Sascha Kappos.
Kappos will be at the heart of tonight’s match up as he will be charged with guarding Ekiyor around the rim.
At six feet 10 inches, Kappos has the range to guard Ekiyor, though size may be a factor. His weight is unlisted, but he does not have the same kind of upper-body mass as the Ravens’ forward. He will have his hands full in the post trying to slow down Ekiyor.
Carleton may start forward Mitch Jackson, as they have done this year, to give Kappos a foul or two before bringing Ekiyor in.
In last night’s game, Dalhousie ran a lot of isolation looks through their point guard Alex Carson, with the low-wing players switching sides and clearing space for Carson.
This worked well last night with Carson scoring a team high 17 points. He wasn’t, however, matched up against two-time running U Sports defensive player of the year Marcus Anderson.
Anderson has taken on many big assignments this year, including OUA first team all star guard Jean-Victor Mukama of Ryerson, who Anderson limited to 10 points in the Ravens’ 81-61 Ontario University Athletics (OUA) championship finals win.
Mukuma shot 5-18 and was a non-factor in the game. This was one of the many times Anderson has dominated in an all-star match up.
The Tigers can’t expect to win running the offence on match-ups against Anderson, with their best odds likely to come when Anderson is sitting down. Early on, the Tigers may go to to the isolation in the hopes Anderson fouls and has to sit down.
Carleton’s most difficult games this season largely resulted from Anderson on the bench with first half fouls.
While Anderson was forced to watch from the bench against Ryerson last January, his team fell behind as Mukama racked up the points. The Ravens couldn’t come back late and fell by four in their only loss this year.
Home crowd advantage for Dalhousie
The largest advantage the Tigers will have will be a raucous home crowd.
The stadium was electric in last night’s quarterfinal win, and with a berth in the national championships on the line, expect more of the same from Dalhousie’s fans.
Dalhousie Athletics was giving away more than 1,000 tickets on social media, so the yellow and black will be out in full force.
Tip off is at 6:00 pm Atlantic 5:00 p.m. EST, follow @charlatansports on Twitter for live updates.
Photo by Tim Austen
