The Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team defeated the Nipissing Lakers on Nov. 7 at the Raven’s Nest. It was the second game of a back-to-back opening weekend, with the Ravens coming off a 45-point win over the Laurentian Voyageurs.
The Ravens started the game on a 15-2 run, with Kaza Kajami-Keane leading the offence. Kajami-Keane, who played in the NCAA last year, said the Ontario University Athletic (OUA) game is more fitting to his style of play.
“The NCAA is a lot slower with a longer shot clock,” Kajami-Keane said. “The OUA is a lot faster-paced, which I enjoy.”
Connor Wood, a fourth-year wing, caught fire halfway through the first quarter, hitting back-to-back-to-back threes. Wood also finished an alley-oop layup to cap off his personal 11-0 run. The Ravens showed great interior defence, finishing the first quarter 27-6 for Carleton.
The second quarter saw Wood continue his success, hitting another two threes in the quarter. He finished the first half with 25 points, propelling the Ravens to a 58-27 lead at halftime.
“I was just open and my teammates found me,” Wood said. “We knew if we attacked their zone [defence] we would find the open guy.”
Nipissing was led by Wil Konybai off the bench, who scored 10 in the first half. The Lakers opened up the third quarter with a newfound intensity on defence, looking to gain some momentum. Coach Rob Smart elected to play some of his reserves in the second half, and Nipissing showed signs of life—winning the third quarter by one point—but still trailing to the Ravens in the game.
Gavin Resch found his shot in the third quarter after an off night against Laurentian, running the Ravens’ offence.
“We tried to focus on defence and rebounding, and let our offence come to us,” Resch said.
The Ravens closed out the fourth quarter definitively, with Mitchell Jackson, a second-year forward from Regina, leading the offence. The final score was 102-67 for the Ravens.
Jackson had his best game as a Raven thus far and finished with 17 points, while starting shooting guard Gavin Resch made four threes en route to 19 points, five rebounds, and four assists. Kajami-Keane had a double-double with 14 points and 11 assists, and Cameron Smyth added nine points and 12 rebounds.
At the top of all the impressive stat lines for the Ravens was Wood, winning player of the game with 27 points and five rebounds. Smart praised his bench players as well.
“We’re pretty deep, and guys want to compete for spots, which as a coach, is fun,” he said.
The Ravens won their first two games of the season by an average of 40 points.
“We need to work a lot defensively—we let them go on too many runs they should not have gotten,” Wood said.
When asked what the team needed improvement on, forward Ryan Ejim said, “Everything. We’re just trying to get better every day.”
At the end of the first weekend of the OUA season, the Ravens sit atop the standings, tied for first with the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees. The Ravens play next at Guelph on Nov. 13.
