All week long, the potential of an all-Ottawa final between the Carleton Ravens and University of Ottawa Gee-Gees under the bright lights at Scotiabank Place had everyone talking.
It was the sexy matchup that fans, some players from both teams, and tournament organizers all wanted to see.
It’s not going to happen— not this year at least.
And according to Ravens head coach Dave Smart, that may not be a bad thing.
“I think there was a lot of fear in our team room about having to play them,” Smart said after Carleton’s 84-69 semifinal victory over the Acadia Axemen. “We beat them three times this year. Beating a team that good four times . . . we’re not idiots.”
Neither are the Lakehead University Thunderwolves — the team Carleton will meet in this afternoon’s Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) men’s basketball championship final.
As the seventh seed, they knew coming into weekend that they were the underdogs. They knew many wrote them off before the tournament even began.
They knew none of that mattered.
“That’s the beauty of it,” said Ottawa native Greg Carter, Lakehead’s starting point guard. “There’s no pressure on us. We just go out and play. Being an underdog is blessed. You don’t have to worry about anything, you’ve just got to hoop.”
And they’ve been doing it quite well as of late.
First, they knocked off the second-seeded Cape Breton Capers. Then, they upset the favoured Gee-Gees in front of a hostile Ottawa crowd. Could a win over the top-ranked Ravens be next?
It’s not like they haven’t done it before.
Two years ago, an almost identical Thunderwolves squad stunned the Ravens with a commanding 77-62 victory in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) final.
“They kicked our butt,” Smart said. “This is a team that’s extremely capable.”
Any team that has the luxury of throwing a two-time CIS defensive player of the year onto the court would be. That would be Carter, who was on the floor guarding Gee-Gees star Warren Ward in the dying stages of Saturday’s semifinal.
Carter is 5’10”, 170 lbs. Ward is 6’5”, 205 lbs.
If the size different wasn’t enough, Carter was playing with one shoulder.
“I know [Carter] finished the game with one of his shoulders out of his socket,” said Thunderwolves head coach Scott Morrison. “He probably won’t be able to play [Sunday] but I’ll never forget the heart that kid showed the last three minutes of the game guarding an all-Canadian.”
After the game, Carter said he’d play. And this time, he’ll likely have the tough task of guarding the two-time CIS player of the year, Philip Scrubb.
Scrubb dropped a game-high 26 points on Saturday and his brother Thomas added 20. They’ll need to be front and centre once again on Sunday.
The Ravens won each of their two meetings against the Thunderwolves this season, outscoring them 166-104 in the process.
For this reason, Thomas said he would have preferred to meet the Gee-Gees in the final. They would have presented the “toughest challenge,” he said.
Smart has a different perspective.
“If Lakehead beats us, they’re going to beat us at our best,” he said. “To be very frank, Ottawa might have beat us not at our best just because I think our guys . . . wouldn’t have been trying to win a national championship as much as they were trying not to lose it to Ottawa.”
When it comes to pure talent, Lakehead may be lacking compared to some of the other teams in Ottawa this weekend. But when it comes to work ethic and aggressiveness, they’re right there with Carleton.
In fact, Smart called them the “toughest team in the country.”
As Ravens forward Tyson Hinz put it, “it’s going to be a war.”
