Men’s basketball
The Carleton Raven’s men’s basketball team started the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) playoffs with a blowout win on March 5, defeating the Brock Badgers 90-52 at the Ravens’ Nest.
With their convincing win against a nationally-ranked opponent, the Ravens showed they were ready for another championship run. Connor Wood was the man of the game, setting a new career-high with 37 points and leading the Ravens to yet another OUA Final Four.
Ravens point guard Kaza Kajami-Keane said the team’s only game plan was to get Wood the ball.
The Ravens were dominant out of the gate, with Wood hitting multiple shots and Kajami-Keane getting to the rim at will. Wood hit three triples in the first quarter and the Ravens were up 26-6 to start the second.
Kajami-Keane started the second quarter with a quick layup, and the Ravens just kept rolling.
Kajami-Keane and Wood combined for 25 out of the Raven’s first 30 points.
The Badgers stayed in the game thanks to a 12-0 run halfway through the second quarter, led by sophomore guard Johneil Simpson.
Wood was still on fire, and his nine straight points in less than two minutes put the Ravens up 46-22 going into halftime. Wood had 24 points in the first half, outscoring the Badgers single-handedly with open threes.
Wood continued his onslaught into the third quarter, pouring in another 11 points, along with his fifth triple of the night. While Wood took charge of the offence, the other Ravens came together for one of their best defensive performances of the year, holding Brock’s usually dynamic offence to their lowest scoring total this season.
The third quarter ended with Carleton leading 67-34, and Wood still outscoring the Badgers with 35 points.
“You try to put him in situations he likes,” Kajami-Keane said of Wood’s big night. “When a player is hot like that, you get him the ball—just get open and I’ll find you.”
Ravens coach Rob Smart opted to give his bench some playoff experience to close out the game, and the Ravens won the game by a final score of 90-52.
While Brock out-rebounded the Ravens 48-46, their inability to make shots (24.2 per cent from the field) and their season-high 22 turnovers kept them from gaining the upper hand.
The Ravens attributed their intensity in the game to their previous losses against the University of Ottawa (U of O) this season, especially at Capital Hoops.
“Nobody likes to lose,” Smart said. “I think we kind of had to go through some bumps, so hopefully we’re ready to make a playoff run now.”
“There’s no motivation like losing,” Wood said. “Ever since then, we realized a bunch of stuff we need to work on.”
“We didn’t want to lose in front of our fans,” Kajami-Keane said. “Coming off a tough loss like that, you definitely learn from it.”
Wood won player of the game, adding a team-high six rebounds along with his new career high. Kajami-Keane added 14 points and Guillaume Payen Boucard chipped in 11 with five boards and five assists.
Dani Elgadi, leading scorer for the Badgers, was held to just 1-9 shooting and 10 points on the night.
“Elgadi is a hell of a player—they’re a very good team,” Smart said after the game. “[Wood] just got going a bit, and that sparked us.”
Looking forward, Wood said, “As long as we keep defending like we do, we just have to rebound.”
The Ravens will move on to the OUA semifinals for a much-anticipated rematch with the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees at Ryerson University on March 11. Ryerson will face the University of Windsor in the other semifinal matchup.
Women’s basketball
The Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team were eliminated from the OUA playoffs in a 63-48 upset victory by the Windsor Lancers on March 5 at the Ravens’ Nest.
“We didn’t make enough plays,” said Ravens head coach Taffe Charles. “I think that sounds very simple and simplistic, but I would also say our better players didn’t make enough plays.”
“At the end of the day in playoff time, the referees are going to let you play a bit and I think we weren’t able to make plays when plays needed to be made,” he said.
The Ravens initially started the game strong. They narrowly led the game 26-24 at the half, while Abeer Farhat and Lindsay Shotbolt were leading the offensive charge with a team-high six points each at the half.
“I think that [Windsor] kinda of felt like, ‘Hey, were still in this,’ and that gave them some new life,” Charles said. “So I think the tables definitely turned, probably going into halftime.”
“We just didn’t have enough of the momentum and I think they just believed they had an opportunity to win and I think we didn’t do a good job of taking that away from them,” he said.
As the third quarter progressed, the lead slipped away from the Ravens, and they soon found themselves trailing by five at the end of the quarter.
“We had a game plan going into the game, but unfortunately we didn’t execute it as well as we should have,” Shotbolt said in a text message. “Windsor has always been a very successful team and we knew they wouldn’t go without putting up a fight, and they did.”
“Even though we had played them before and were successful, playoffs are definitely a different experience and atmosphere,” she said.
The Ravens were unable to muster a comeback and were outscored 20-10 in the final quarter.
“I thought we had a good year, we improved significantly from last year in many ways,” Charles said. “However, it wasn’t where we wanted to be, our goal was Nationals so we didn’t quite reach our goals but it depends on the individuals and how they go about the off-season.”
Shotbolt expressed similar sentiments after the game.
“When games like that happen and we don’t achieve the result we wanted, we use that as motivation and determination for the upcoming season,” she said. “And remember the feeling of what it was like to lose, and will work extremely hard in the off season so we do not face the same result next season.”
