Nov. 26, 2022 - By: Jackson Starr (Photo: Valerie Wutti, Blitzen Photography)
OTTAWA - The Carleton Ravens bounced back from a tough loss last weekend to defeat the Windsor Lancers 98-76 on Friday night. The Ravens were able to shut down a strong Windsor side which put together a hard-fought effort in trying to maintain a perfect record. However, Carleton shut the Lancers down as the game went on to take the game.
The Lancers came out of the gate strong in the first quarter trying to assert its offensive talent against the Ravens. Particularly, Najee Brown-Henderson for the Lancers did a terrific job out of the gate knocking down a couple big threes which gave Windsor life in the early goin. Carleton hung around though, as the tightly contested, back and forth first quarter went along. A key matchup throughout that was seen early on was the battle in the paint between Grant Shephard (Kelowna, BC.) for the Ravens and Thomas Kennedy for the Lancers. Both players had big first quarter and were able to assert themselves in the paint. Windsor held a slim 19-16 lead after the first quarter.
For the second quarter, Carleton really came out of the gate strong to put together a dominant showing. The Ravens outscored the Lancers 33-17 in the second, taking the lead into the break. Evan Meyer (Oshawa, Ont.) had a huge impact on the game off the bench for the Ravens feeding off of Shephard’s work to put together a strong effort in the paint. Gabrael Samaha (Al-Khinchara, LB) also helped in the paint in putting together a dominant effort on the glass for Carleton. With strong secondary scoring, the Ravens were able to fight through and put up a strong lead at the half.
Windsor was able to settle down after the break and win the third quarter as it tried to get back into the game. Carleton’s lead, though still manageable, was shrinking as Windsor changed momentum to try and fight its way back from behind. Lorenzo Barberi in particular did a good job off of the bench for Windsor to help get his team back into the game. The Ravens though, still did a good job trying to maintain the sizable lead, doing so heading into the fourth quarter.
Looking to hold off the Lancers, Carleton did a great job generating chances, adding to the scoreboard and managing the gap to hold Windsor off for the rest of the game. Warnholtz came alive late to propel his team in the end. Overall Warnholtz collected 23 points while shooting nine for 16 from the field on the night, one where he was not fully healthy. Carleton also did a great job at forcing Windsor into tough shots. The Lancers shot only 40 percent from the field throughout the game, having an uneasy time finding good looks. As the fourth quarter winded down Carleton closed off Windsor well, taking a game against a good opponent by the score of 98-76.
The win is Carleton’s fifth on the season and sees the team’s record improve to 5-1 on the season. In the tightly contested OUA East, every game counts and the Ravens were able to pick up the victory in this one. Carleton will have to reset quickly as it welcomes in the Western Mustangs Saturday night to try and complete the weekend sweep.
On the team’s strength at Centre:
“Coming off of a loss, just reevaluate and find what our strengths are and our strengths are our post game. We have the best post game in Canada. We have the three best five (spot) guys in Canada.”
On Aidan Warnholtz:
“In the second half he got into it better. He didn’t practice at a high level for two-three days, that's probably what we saw here (in the) first half. A little rusty, wasn't playing the game to the speed, not letting the game come to him, I thought he had a better second half.”
On the bench supporting the offense:
“Right now, those guys are fresh. It's November 25th and we're beat up, so it's nice to have some fresh bodies in there… It’s nice to have contributions off the bench, I like the scoring off the bench tonight.”
Prep for Western tomorrow:
“They play a lot of zone, so we’ve got to deal with that. We’re going to have to figure out not to let them get us out of our inside game by playing a lot of zone. We’ve got to make sure that we’re staying focused…making sure that we’re playing inside out.”
