The Ravens men’s basketball team is going back to the U Sports national championship game for the first since 2016-17 after winning a 76-65 thriller against the hometown Dalhousie University Tigers.
The game was down to the wire with the Ravens, more often than not, on the back foot.
The Ravens, who were on fire from beyond the arch last night against the University of Alberta, could not get the deep ball going after going only 5-17 from beyond the arch throughout the game.
After tip-off, a three-pointer ignited the Dalhousie home crowd and shocked the Ravens.
The Tigers crowd roared as Carleton struggled offensively as the Ravens shifted around looking out of sync for the first quarter.
Towards the end of the first quarter, the Ravens squeaked out an unconvincing 20-17 lead.
In the second quarter, the Ravens went on a run and followers of the team felt a familiar wave of relief come over them. The Ravens have been a very good second quarter team all season.
However, a well used time-out stalled the Ravens run with Dalhousie climbing back into the match on a strong shooting quarter.
A powerful dunk from Tigers forward Sascha Kappos rose the crowd to their feet, energizing the team.
The first half ended with both teams exchanging threes, including Ravens guard Isiah Osborne hitting one at the buzzer to give his squad a 35-33 lead.
Ravens guard Munis Tutu opened the second half going hard to the rim, fittingly, as that would be a staple of the half.
Tutu had a monster night playing 39 minutes and tied for scoring with a game-high 21 points, and 7-15 from the field.
He contributed all over the place—taking charges, grabbing six rebounds, five assists and being an invaluable vocal leader for his team.
Tutu was clearly charged up and focused on getting to his first U Sports championship game as a Raven.
Despite another good start to the second half, it wasn’t smooth sailing in the third quarter. The Ravens were outscored 23-18, the Tigers schemed very well to keep the perimeter shooters open and scoring.
At the end of the quarter, Ravens forward Mitch Wood fouled Tigers point guard Alex Carson. After making his first shot, Carson went on to miss the second.
Fellow guard Jordan Brathwaite collected the rebound, imposed physically inside and scored the tough two points.
The hometown crowd went wild as the Tigers entered the fourth quarter leading 56-53.
The Ravens entered the fourth quarter with a throwback scheme not seen much this year per head coach Dave Smart.
“Our point guards and we, in general, had a tough time finding something to run, we ended up running something we hadn’t run much this year,” Smart said.
“It’s something we’d run that hadn’t worked well for us this year but had been our go-to for 15 years. It just so happened that they hadn’t seen it yet this year. ” Smart added.
It was the Phil Scrubb era play calling in effect, a two-guard set with one cutting back door. In this scenario, it was Tutu running the play.
In this play, the ball carrier, usually guard Yasiin Joseph, had the off-ball cutter or a drop off option to forward Eddie Ekiyor. If things broke down, it was swung to the outlet and then restarted.
The strategic call was pure brilliance for Carleton as the Ravens exploded in the fourth quarter for 23 points to Dalhousie’s nine.
The teams stayed neck and neck with five minutes to go until Tutu made a key inside drive to the hoop off a well-drawn isolation look. This pushed the Ravens ahead by four on the scoreboard and, perhaps more importantly, electrified his team.
Then it was Ekiyor’s time. First, with a massive block turned up the floor by Tutu who dropped it off back to Ekiyor to convert the easy finish.
The next play was a high low screen to Ekiyor, who put it back to increase the Ravens’ lead. Smart, sensing a change in momentum, called his number again.
Dalhousie got the ball and took it to the charity stripe after a miss-and-make down eight points. The Tigers hit the panic button full-court pressing the Ravens on the inbound.
Whatever doubt was left in the game was put to rest when Tutu found Ekiyor, who slammed the ball down while being fouled.
The dunk was a superstar play from a superstar player, sealing the game and sending Dalhousie fans home.
In the post-game conference, Smart had nothing but good things to say about the Tigers.
“We knew what we were getting into. They’re a good team, they play hard, they’ve always been a good program.” Smart said.
“They did a really good job. Really, they’re just so solid in terms of what they want to do as a team,” Smart added. “So they just take things away and make it look like they’re taking another thing away.”
Ravens guard Troy Reid-Knight agreed.
“They’re a great team,” he said. “They play hard, rebound well, move the ball well. I like the way they play at both ends of the court.”
Clutch plays from Smart’s squad down the stretch were a result of the team’s mantra all year long.
“On one end of the court we have to play with a ton of aggression and fear, then on the other floor, we have to have some fun . . . We [during timeouts] tried to be frank about it and said you have to have some fun on the offensive end.”
Being aggressive and confident is most important to Smart.
“You have to win basketball games, you can’t not lose basketball games.”
The Ravens will play against the defending U Sports champion University of Calgary Dinos tonight at 6 p.m. ADT.
Photo by Tim Austen
