Carleton Ravens men’s basketball started the 2020 U Sports Basketball championships with a 82-66 win in their quarterfinal matchup against the Calgary Dinos.
“Every team here is tough, Calgary is a very tough opponent. They have a pedigree of winning a championship a couple years ago, they were in the finals last year,” said Ravens head coach Taffe Charles. “They have some guys who know how to play this time of year.”
The Dinos were looking to keep the game close after falling to Carleton 49-83 in the 2018-19 U Sports Final.
Calgary kept the game close to start, but the Ravens quickly shut them down in the second quarter limiting them to just 11 points. Over the first half, Calgary’s high scoring Ezeoha Santiago and Brett Layton were held to a combined 14 points. Santiago finished with 14 points while Layton finished with 23.
“They get tired, and I think part of our strategy is when they get tired because they’re big, they stop rebounding,” said Charles.
“They’re worried about not offensive rebounding because if they don’t get an offensive rebound they’re going to have to hustle back so they tend to stop going to the offensive board.”
In the second quarter Carleton’s fourth year guard and player of the game Isiah Osborne drove Carleton’s effort, pouncing on rebounds, driving hard to the net (often through multiple defenders) and finished with a team high 20 points.
“I just go on the court and try to do what coach asks me to do. Just go out there and do what we’ve got to do,” said Osborne. “We’ve got a lot of depth. We can run on some teams out there.”
“Obviously there’s a lot of stuff we still have to work on, little minor things we need to fix,” said Osborne.
Pace was also something that helped the Ravens secure the victory according to Charles.
“I thought we played fast and when we play fast we’re tough to beat,” he explained.
Calgary started the third quarter with desperation, going on a 14-5 run closing the deficit to just 11 points.
Layton’s six-foot-eight frame was also a strong presence for the Dinos as he averaged 20 points and 14 rebounds per game this season.
Despite Carleton’s six-foot-nine Biniam Ghebrekidan guarding Layton closely for a majority of the game, Layton led his team in points and had 16 rebounds.
However, Carleton’s Ghebrekidan didn’t back down, scoring 12 of his own and securing 11 rebounds, earning his coach’s praises in the process.
“Ghrebrekidan did an awesome job today. He scored offensively, I think that was the biggest deal, not letting Layton get a lot of rest on defence,” said Charles.
“I think he really gave us confidence because he was ready to play. I’m pretty proud of what he can do and hopefully he can do it again in the next couple days.”
Looking ahead, the Ravens will now face the Western Mustangs in the semi finals. In their most recent matchup, the Wilson Cup Final, Carleton prevailed 90-68. However, Charles isn’t taking the task lightly.
“We anticipate a very tough match up. Playing a team for the third time is often difficult,” said Charles. “They’re going to make adjustments, we’re going to have to make adjustments on their adjustments.”
“Brad [Campbell’s] a great coach and he’s going to have something ready for us to counteract how we play. They turned us over a lot last game and we typically don’t turn over the ball that much.”
Tip off for the semi-final game will be on March 8 at 6 p.m. at TD Place.
Feature image by Tim Austen
