By Jackson Starr (Photos by Valerie Wutti)
OTTAWA - The Carleton Ravens Men’s Basketball team won 88-66 against the Laurentian Voyageurs at the Ravens’ Nest Friday night, kicking the weekend off on a strong note. Carleton built an early lead and maintained it to pick up the win.
The Ravens came out of the gate on fire, opening up a quick 8-0 advantage in the first few minutes. That then quickly led to a 15-3 lead with Laurentian struggling to make shots. Aiden Warnholtz (Ottawa, Ont.) fed off of a strong Capital Hoops showing last weekend to put up 12 first-quarter points for the Ravens. Carleton held a 27-5 advantage after one-quarter of play.
The Voyageurs responded after a lacklustre first quarter and came out with a good start in the second. That resulted in a quick 7-0 run out of the break for Laurentian. Carleton responded by making a few big buckets to maintain the lead. Reginald Jean-Seraphin (CITY) and Wazir Latiff (CITY) each made big buckets to build on the Ravens' lead. With Carleton building on the advantage, it was a 49-22 scoreline at the half.
The Ravens did a good job in the second half at managing a steady lead for themselves, and in fact, built on it in the third. Grant Shephard joined the party and collected a few third-quarter buckets, as well as Jacob Knight, who was able to knock down a three off of the bench. With this help, the Ravens led 66-33 after three-quarters of the action.
Carleton continued to hold its lead as the game entered the fourth quarter but the Voyageurs did a good job at still making shots. Ethan Cudney picked up nine fourth-quarter points to lead the way for Laurentian. Carleton, though, was able to ride out the lead and fight off some late adversity. The Ravens closed this one out to take a 88-66 win.
The win gives the Ravens a 15-4 record on the season and extends its winning streak to four games. Carleton will host the Nipissing Lakers at the Ravens’ Nest tomorrow night to wrap up the weekend, looking to continue a positive late-season push.
“(We) played well. I thought we took them really seriously, did a really good job in the first half…I thought we’ve done some good work the last couple of weeks to put ourselves in this position. We don’t want to be overlooking them and I don’t think we overlooked them tonight which is good.”
“He's working hard. He’s always shooting (at practice), and working hard. Spacing the floor well, got deep and finished well when we needed him to so it was nice to see him put himself in positions to be successful.”
“There’s always a sense of urgency. You look at the standings and we realize that we can’t afford to lose any more games if we want to put (ourselves) in a position to be successful in the end. That’s what we’ve been trying to do.”
“Trying to get to the first spot in our league. That’s our number one goal. Then we host as many playoff games as we can. It's super important for us to get to the first place spot.”
“When I’m out there, I don’t really think about points that much because my role on the team is to bring energy on defence and on the boards. When I get those points it's mostly when I space right and my teammates find me. Most of those points are just good passes and I just put them in the net.”
“The energy on the bench, the energy on defence, communication, that’s a big difference. We’ve made an emphasis on communicating on defence, especially in the second half. That keeps the starters fuelled up, it makes a huge difference.”
