Can you see them? The ghosts from the last Capital Hoops—they’re on the court, if you look closely enough.
Marcus Anderson is heaving the ball up one last time, the walls caving in around the Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team as they breathe their last breaths of a one-point loss. If you squint and listen carefully, they’re still there.
The players are different this time. The script is reversed, too. It’s the uOttawa Gee-Gees taking the final shots, missing five attempts in the final 17 seconds. It’s Carleton guard Wazir Latiff who grabs the final rebound, deflating with relief as the crowd around him erupts.
The ghosts of 2020 Capital Hoops were there, though, and after a pandemic, a lost season and another championship under their belt, the Ravens have finally exorcized the memories that lurked in the rafters of TD Place.
Carleton’s 67-61 win on Friday at the 2023 Capital Hoops Classic echoed the back-breaking final seconds of Carleton’s one-point loss in 2020, when the Ravens missed four potential game-winning shots in the last seven seconds. This time around, it took a furious third quarter run and unstoppable masterclass from guard Aiden Warnholtz to keep the ghosts at bay.
The Ravens and Gee-Gees were in lockstep early, tying and untying the score throughout the first and second quarter. At the half, uOttawa led by one point.
Carleton’s fortune turned in the third. Fresh off the best weekend of his university career, Warnholtz came alive again, dumping threes and sprinkling assists around the court. He shuttled a no-look pass to guard Connor Vreeken in the corner, who drained a three-pointer with ease.
Next, he drained a three of his own, this time extending the Ravens’ scoring streak to 14 consecutive points. In less than five minutes, a three-point deficit became an 11-point lead.
Warnholtz ended the game with 25 points in 36 minutes, a game-high in both categories.
“We got him four minutes of rest, so that’s awesome,” Carleton head coach Taffe Charles said. “At this point in the year, everyone’s playing minutes. You’re always kind of concerned about [overreliance] but at the end of the day, he knows how to play those minutes [and] there’s [not] really other options.”
The Gee-Gees crept back—remember, this is Capital Hoops. Nothing comes easy. With less than four minutes left in the game, uOttawa tied it 59-59. It was the sixth and final tie of the night.
Finally, after not scoring at all in the first half, Vreeken joined the effort. He sank a jump shot, then watched Warnholtz do the same. By the time Vreeken made another two-pointer, the Ravens led by six.
Grant Shephard’s dunk with one minute and one second left on the clock was the death knell. The ghosts of 2020 Capital Hoops will haunt the Ravens no longer.
Ottawa’s Guillaume Pépin, who leads the Gee-Gees in points per game (minimum 10 games played), made only three field goals despite 16 attempts. It follows a rough string of games for Pépin, who also struggled against Queen’s and the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks last weekend.
“Guillaume’s a high-motor, athletic guy and at times … in big games, it feels like he’s pressing,” uOttawa head coach James Derouin said. “He’s trying his ass off, he just hasn’t been able to find that balance in these big games … We’re gonna need him to be better to win these kinds of games.”
Ultimately, what made this year’s Capital Hoops so important was the standings. Beyond rivalry and revenge, the Ravens needed to beat the Gee-Gees to help their playoff picture.
The Ravens have lost four games already, enough to drop them into a virtual three-way tie atop the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) east division with the Gee-Gees and Queen’s Gaels.
If the Ravens finish first in the east, they skip the first round of the playoffs, as they will if they finish with the best record of a non-division winner in the OUA. But if both Queen’s and uOttawa finish above Carleton in the standings, it will force the Ravens into the first round.
Forget the ghosts. That’s why they needed to win Capital Hoops.
There’s still four more games left in the regular season, including a rematch against the Gee-Gees on Feb. 15.
That’s why, when the final buzzer rang at TD Place, all but one Raven celebrated. That was Charles, who stood frustrated on the corner of the black and brown hardwood, chewing gum.
Despite the win, the Ravens turned the ball over 20 times, leading to 17 points for uOttawa.
“If we can shore those things up and execute a little bit better, I think we’d be tough to beat,” Charles said after the game.
There’s still work to be done. After all, the pressures of the Ravens’ legacy are tough to live up to.
Featured image by Spencer Colby.
