OTTAWA - It was a shootout at Carleton University as the Ravens and Queen's Gaels met for the second straight night with the Ravens coming out on top 94-75.
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The Ravens opened senior night at the Ravens’ Nest in trademark fashion scoring every which way as they led the Gaels at the end of the first quarter 22-14. The lead would have been more if not for a long three from Henry Van Herk in the dying seconds of the quarter.
The Ravens were dangerous in the half, getting scoring from 9 different players while shooting 63.3% from the field.
Midway through the second quarter, as the Gaels continued to trade big shots with the Ravens, Alain Louis (Montreal, Que.) made his first bucket of the night, draining a big three from the right wing that seemed to put the guests on their heels. After the Gaels called timeout looking to slow the game down, Connor Vreeken (Kingston, Ont.) would hit a fadeaway jumper to extend the lead before scoring on back-to-back possessions to push the Ravens lead to 14.
Carleton couldn’t miss at times in the second, hitting 5-of-8 from beyond the arc – for 8-for-14 in the half. Aidan Warnholtz (Ottawa, Ont.) did the most impressive damage for the Ravens, scoring a first-half high 11 points including shooting 3-for-5 from downtown.
As the quarter grew on, the Ravens took advantage of being in the bonus, pulling away on the back of 6-for-7 from the line to finish the half with a 53-29 lead.
In the third quarter, the Gaels continued to show their grit, battling hard while scoring 10 points in the first 4 minutes of the half. For the second straight night, it was Luka Syllas and Quinton Gray leading the charge for the Gaels. Throughout the third, the Gaels would mount a comeback bringing a physical brand of basketball to the Ravens and cutting the 24-point halftime lead down to 17 with one quarter to play.
As Quinton Gray continued to display his range, the Ravens would continue to find answers, Alain Louis would hit his second three of the game before Warnholtz added his fourth to re-establish a 20-point lead with two-and-a-half minutes to play.
Despite fantastic shooting from the Gaels, the Ravens would make the adjustments they needed to hold their lead throughout the fourth for the victory and the undefeated regular season record.
"It kind of got away from us on the defensive end of the court," said Ravens' head coach Taffe Charles. "We always want to play well, that's just our standard, but they played well. But the good news is, there's no more lessons from me anymore. We're going to decide if we need learn hard lessons, and at this time of year, hard lessons are usually loses."
The Ravens will look to avoid any of those hard losses when they open up the playoffs at home in the OUA East Semi-Final next Saturday. The Ravens now await the winner of one of two East division quarter-final games which will be held this Wednesday.
