The Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team ended their season with a disappointing, but still impressive, bronze medal at nationals in Halifax, N.S.
The team struggled early in the quarterfinals against the Acadia Axemen, holding only a slight lead throughout the first three quarters. Going into the game a Carleton victory seemed to be inevitable, but Acadia held the number one ranked team at bay, keeping the lead within single digits throughout.
“I think they did a great job with their plan,” said Carleton head coach Dave Smart after the game. “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.”
Carleton was able to come out on top in the fourth outscoring the Axemen 27-12 to win 81-64.
The next game, Carleton found themselves up against the Ryerson Rams, a rematch of the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Wilson Cup and last years’ national finals, with both games seeing the Ravens come out on top.
The game was an intense and heated affair from the opening minute, with both teams playing a physical game. Both teams continued to trade baskets throughout the first half of the game, going into the third quarter tied 36-36.
The third proved to be a rough quarter for the Ravens as Ryerson took the lead 63-56.
The Ravens would attempt to mount a comeback as the Rams held them at bay, with both teams playing some of the toughest basketball of their entire season. Despite a clutch three from Yasiin Joseph and two points from Cam Smythe, that brought the Ravens within four points, Ryerson was able to pull out the upset and end Carleton’s hope at an eighth-straight national title.
“This team, we lost five of our top seven guys and played guys who never saw meaningful minutes before in their lives,” Smart said after the loss. “And we went undefeated until tonight. Everywhere else that’s a celebration. And unfortunately, at our place, it’s not.”
Despite the loss, Smart praised the play of Joseph, who went from a bench player last year to first-team OUA all-star, leading the Ravens in points at nationals, with 18 points per game.
“[Joseph] saved us,” Smart said after the semifinal. “He’s sitting in that team room feeling like he cost us our year and I’m telling him: ‘he saved us our year,’ he absolutely saved us our year. What he did from where he was last year is just incredible. And that’s the hard part of winning as many as we’ve won.”
The next day, Carleton took on the McGill Redmen for U Sports bronze, with the previous day’s loss still fresh in their minds. The Ravens went down early entering the second half of the game trailing by a score of 34-24.
“We try to focus on playing hard the entire game. Didn’t start off that way, especially for me. For the team, in the second half, we started to come out with a lot more energy,” said Ravens forward Marcus Anderson. “For next year, hopefully, we get more technical, and we will be a little bit more experienced.”
The second half saw the Ravens rack up an impressive 52 points, with the contribution being spread across the team. A final rush, where Munis Tutu split the McGill defense and found TJ Lall inside the paint, extending the Ravens lead in the dying seconds of the fourth quarter.
The rest was left up to Carleton’s number one ranked defence, which stifled any hope for a McGill comeback and put the game away, 76-71.
The bronze medal was not what the Ravens team had hoped for. After winning 27 straight games, only to lose in the semifinals, it was a disappointing finish to the season.
“If someone told me we were going to go [28-1] I would tell them no. I’m extremely proud. Obviously, we wanted to win. We didn’t have the experience to win,” said Smart.
The team is younger than most previous Ravens teams, with only one player graduating after this season. Anderson who won both the OUA and U Sports defensive player of the year awards, and Eddie Ekiyor, who was named a U Sports second-team all-Canadian, will both be returning to the Ravens lineup for another year.
“It’s very productive for us moving forward. It’s very productive for us in terms of understanding where our holes are. Making them see where the holes are,” Smart said. “We’ve got a long time until we go to the Acadia tournament at the end of September. I hope by then we will be a really, really, really good basketball team.”
—with files from Grant Vassos
Photo by Grant Vassos
