OTTAWA - The Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team put together a convincing performance in defeating the highly ranked Queen’s Gaels 103-89 on Friday night at the Ravens' Nest. Carleton jumped out to an early lead and made clutch shots throughout in securing the victory.
The Ravens came out of the gate with some offensive flair as Carleton set the tone from the three-point line. Both Aiden Warnholtz (Ottawa, Ont.) and Jacob Knight (Vaughn, Ont.) were active in making some key shots from beyond the arc, the former finishing with nine points in the first quarter. Carleton also got a good effort out of Grant Shephard (Kelowna, BC), who had six points in the first. The Ravens led 31-24 after one quarter.
The Gaels answered back with a strong effort in trying to battle its way into the game, but Carleton also did a good job at making its shots and holding a slim lead. Shepherd and MJ Okado (Calgary, Alta.) did a good job at sustaining the Ravens' offence, with some good defensive support in the form of Reginald Jean Seraphin (Ottawa, Ont.). Shepherd was also strong on the boards picking up eight rebounds in the first half. Despite the Gaels battling back into it, the Ravens held a slim 52-48 lead at the half.
The Ravens fell into foul trouble early on in the third quarter which allowed the Gaels to get to the line often. However, Warnholtz and the Ravens answered the bell offensively, maintaining the lead that Queens was threatening. Gebrael Samaha (Kehenchara, LB) had a big third quarter making some clutch buckets inside the paint, and scoring all five of his points in the third. The Ravens held a 75-66 lead going into the fourth quarter.
The Gaels made some adjustments going into the fourth quarter and responded to the Ravens' strong play by going on an early run. Cameron Bett was particularly strong for Queen’s, he finished with 35 points on the night. The Queen’s success coupled with the Ravens struggling to make shots saw the Gaels tie the game at 75. A key timeout settled the Ravens down though, as Carleton was able to get some momentum back. Grant Shephard came through for some larger fourth-quarter baskets, and Okado once again joined the fun making a couple of big threes in the fourth. Warnholtz also stepped up late and capped off a 28-point performance with some big late baskets, sealing the 103-89 win.
The win is Carleton’s 12th on the season, extending its record to 12-4 so far. The Ravens will hop on a bus and face the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks Saturday afternoon on the road before facing the uOttawa Gee-Gees in the Capital Hoops Classic next Friday, February 3rd.
“I thought we played well at home, we got some really good offence, moved the ball a little bit more, tried to decentralize a little bit and not have Aiden (Warnholtz) touch the ball so much. I thought we did a really good job of that.”
“We’ve got a lot of young guys, just trying to get as best we possibly can defensively. Still made some mistakes, they’re a good offensive team. We’ve got to try and defend without fouling, but we didn't do a great job of that.”
“We didn’t play very well the last time we played them. We didn’t exploit some of the things they don’t do well defensively. I thought (tonight) we did a much better job of having a better offensive game plan. We wanted to attack where we wanted to attack them and catch them where we wanted to catch them.”
“If he doesn’t play well, we really struggle. We haven’t supported him well enough, he’s starting to do too much and doesn’t trust his teammates and not by his fault on his own, he wants to put the game on his shoulders, he knows what he needs to do but…it's really at the end of the day a team effort.”
“We have a big game tomorrow, the schedule is not kind to us, it's about getting on a bus and figuring out how to win a game tomorrow. It’s not about bouncebacks, we’ve just got to try and win as many games as we possibly can.”
