The Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team extended their unbeaten run to 16-0 with victories over the Laurentian Voyageurs and the Nipissing Lakers at home on Jan. 18 and 19.
The Ravens held on after a late comeback by the Voyageurs for a narrow 71-67 victory. Laurentian were 12-1 heading into the game and they gave Carleton all they could handle until the end.
“Our energy just fell in the second half and we weren’t doing the fundamental things on defence, and that allowed them to come back but, the guys were able to pull off the win,” said point guard Munis Tutu, who called it an “ugly” win.
The Ravens were also missing centre Eddie Ekiyor and point guard Emmanuel Owootoah for both games, who are both important pieces to the team.
Carleton got off to a hot start as Yasiin Joseph scored a layup and Marcus Anderson hit a corner three-pointer to make it 5-0. Two more three-pointers by Anderson and Mitch Wood stretched the lead to 15-6.
Defensively, the Ravens kept Ontario University Athletics (OUA) leading scorer Kadre Gray (who is averaging 24.4 points-per-game) to a mere two points in the first half.
The Ravens were led by solid guard play from Joseph (14 points, three assists) and Tutu (10 points, 10 assists).
Joseph split a screen and broke in for a layup, while Carleton capitalized on Laurentian turnovers to score fast break points. Anderson had a steal and finish while Tutu did as well, making the score 38-20, leading to a Voyageurs timeout.
Gray managed to heat up in the second half (he finished with 14 points and five rebounds) but the Ravens were able to keep their distance in the third quarter.
Joseph opened the fourth with a corner three to make it 61-39 but, the visitors wouldn’t go away.
Laurentian outscored Carleton 28-13 in the final 10 minutes, cutting the lead to 69-67 with a minute remaining. Laurentian’s Anthony Iacoe missed a three-pointer as Anderson and Cam Smythe hit free throws to ice the game.
“It’s a big learning experience and we got to learn from stuff like this where our coach tells us to not let up in the second half and we did, so we got to take that into the next games and know that in the second half, teams can come back on no matter how big our lead is,” Tutu noted.
The Ravens got off to another big lead the following night against the Lakers, but were able to comfortably prevail 94-66 this time.
The Lakers were held scoreless until halfway through the first quarter as the Ravens raced out to a 17-0 advantage. The team was led offensively by Smythe and TJ Lall with 16 and 17 points apiece.
Smythe hit a baseline jumper to make it 24-7, while Lall knocked down two straight corner deep balls to push the score to 38-12.
Nipissing was able to stay competitive in the second half as James Murray went three-for-five from beyond the arc and Marcus Lewis had 21 points.
Ravens forward William Kohler, fresh off a foot injury, came in with 11 points, including two three-pointers and a finish off a pass from Stanley Mayambo to make it 91-56.
“I thought we let up a bit on the defensive end,” Smythe said. He noted there was more a focus on team defence and rebounding after the Laurentian game.
The Ravens travel to Toronto to take on the Varsity Blues and the Ryerson Rams on Jan. 26 and 27.
Photo by Trevor Swann
