The Carleton Ravens opened up their first game of the men’s basketball championships in Halifax, N.S., with a convincing but hard-earned 81-64 win over the hosting Acadia Axemen.
What was predicted to be a heavily favoured game for the number-one seeded Ravens, turned out to be a wake-up call through three periods of the quarterfinal.
“I think they did a great job with their plan,” said Carleton head coach Dave Smart said of the Axemen. “They had a plan and they chose what they were going to do to force us to hurt them in a certain way, and for three quarters we didn’t do it.”
Despite facing a roaring Acadia crowd to begin the first quarter, Carleton forward Eddie Ekiyor and guard Yasiin Joseph opened up the first few minutes of play by combining for 12 of the Ravens’ first 15 points.
The eighth-seeded Axemen answered back quickly, firing up the home crowd with a breakaway one-handed dunk from Acadia forward Erik Nissen. Nissen would finish the game with a team-leading 18 points, a game-high 17 rebounds, and two assists.
Missed opportunities from three-point range started to plague the Ravens’ offensive production and were a key reason for why the Ravens would only hold a slight 22-18 lead by the end of the first quarter.
Acadia opened up the second quarter with a bang, as Axemen guard Ben Miller and Nissen continued to exploit the Ravens defence through a combination of shooting and points from inside the paint.
With five minutes left to go in the second quarter, Acadia would capitalize on Carleton’s turnovers by taking its first lead of the game with a score of 32-30.
Carleton continued to hang onto their lead with a score of 39-36 to finish off the first half. Joseph ended the half with a statistical showcase of his own by recording nine points, five rebounds, and three assists.
The Ravens entered the second half showing little improvement from their play earlier in the game, going on a two-minute scoreless drought before Ekiyor opened up the team’s scoring with a jumper from outside the paint.
Acadia refused to go away without a fight as Axemen guard Trevon Grant nailed a wide-open three-point shot from the corner. Carleton guard Stanley Mayambo would answer back by burying a three of his own after completing an almost identical play to that of Grant’s.
Carleton’s ball movement and positioning on offence showed signs of coming back to life midway through the third quarter, highlighted by a deep three-point shot from Carleton guard and Ontario University Athletics (OUA) defensive player of the year Marcus Anderson. The Ravens held another tight 54-52 lead heading into the final quarter.
“I’ve been working on my shot, trying to get better. [The] first couple of quarters I was passing up a lot of shots,” Anderson said. “Coach [Smart] just told me to be confident, if the shot’s open then shoot it. And as soon as I got it, I just let it fly.”
Acadia’s Nissen continued his excellent night of play by denying the Ravens with a huge block on the defensive end to begin the fourth quarter.
The play was met with a roar from the hometown crowd, only to be silenced seconds later after Anderson converted from three-point range.
Ekiyor reminded everyone in the arena of his physical presence late in the game with a vicious under the rim drunk with two swarming Acadia defenders. He would finish the game with a game-high 25 points, seven rebounds, and three steals.
Carleton would finally end Acadia’s inspiring comeback by outscoring the opposing Axemen 27-12 to end the game.
The Ravens will now look for another win when they face off in the semifinals against the Ryerson Rams on March 10, in what will be a rematch of this year’s OUA final.
Photo by Matt Czapalay
