The Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team barely made it past the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) semifinal March 4 in Hamilton, Ont., winning the game 83-76.
The game tipped off with a very slow start from the Ravens, who made only seven of 19 shots in the first quarter.
Playing in a stadium full of purple and gold, Carleton couldn’t stop the swoop of the Hawks, and ended the quarter down 26-25.
The slump continued in the second quarter when the men didn’t show their usual dominance on defence as Laurier’s Kale Harrison ended the half with 21 points.
The Ravens were out-rebounded by the Hawks 20-13 and had trouble on offence when their shots wouldn’t drop. Willy Manigat led the Ravens with 12 points.
“We didn’t defend very well and we didn’t finish very well,” said head coach Dave Smart. “But you gotta give [Laurier] some credit too. They made some tough shots.”
Laurier’s momentum swung into the second half with the Ravens following closely behind. Their defence, however, let them down and although the Ravens started scoring, they couldn’t stop the Golden Hawks.
They ended the quarter down 65-60.
It was in the fourth that Carleton finally turned on the heat. Rookie Philip Scrubb was put in to guard Harrison and held him to only five points in the second half. Scrubb also scored 15 points in the second half to help the Ravens slowly chip away at Laurier’s lead.
“Scrubb did a great job defensively on him,” Smart said. “We decided we had to go to a different matchup and he did a great job on him.”
At 8:28 into the fourth quarter, the Ravens finally tied the game at 67.
Relying on layups and foul shots, the Ravens played simple basketball that cracked the Laurier defence. With only 28 seconds left in the game, Willy Manigat made two foul shots to put the Ravens ahead 79-74.
The Ravens battled hard to hold onto the lead and finished the game on top 83-76.
Scrubb, who finished with 23 points, was named MVP of the game for his tough defence and strong offense.
The Ravens take on the Lakehead University Thunderwolves in the OUA final tonight at 8 p.m., although they have already earned their pass into the Canadian Interuniversity Sports championships in Halifax March 11-13.