OTTAWA - Night one of the House-Laughton Hoops Classic is in the books with the Carleton Ravens and UQAM Citadins picking up wins.
In the opening game, the Citadins beat the Saskatchewan Huskies 75-64 after opening the night on a 20-5 run.
Samuel Cayo was red hot for UQAM in the first quarter scoring nine points while Kevin Civil amassed six. The Citadins shot 55.6% in the opening quarter, including a red-hot stretch in the opening quarter where they pulled ahead by as many as 19.
In the second, the two teams exchanged threes as the Huskies started to claw back into the game, with Erwin Loic driving them back to within two before the half finished 38-34 Citadins.
The Citadins rebuilt their lead to 13 to open the second half with Karl Tommy Laforest continuing to build the lead. Laforest finished the evening with 21 points and 8 rebounds in 35 minutes played to lead all players.
After opening the final quarter with the difference at 17 the two teams traded points back and forth for the opening five minutes before Saskatchewan went on a small run to finish out the game. Despite the run, the Huskies fall to 0-1 while the Citadins now face the Guelph Gryphons, who are coming off a tough loss to Carleton.
Carleton's dominance on the glass was the difference in the night cap as Carleton cleaned 53 of 72 rebounds on route to a 76-70 victory over the Guelph Gryphons.
A sharp-shooting Gryphons team jumped out to a lead on the Ravens in the first quarter thanks to eight points from Emmanuel Ansah. Guelph took the lead less than four minutes into the quarter and continued to push away from Carleton as Dylan McFee and Dezayne Mingo stacked up a pair of buckets on the Ravens.
Trailing by three at the end of the quarter Carleton quickly pushed back as Xavier Spencer made a pair of layups before Augustus Brazdeikis hit a jumper to tie the game at 21. The tie was short-lived as Ansah hit another deep three just 14 seconds later. The Ravens continued to push back as Emanuel Milon had a huge defensive stop on Shaathan Walker that transitioned into an Aubrey Dorey-Havens hoop-and-harm.
The Ravens built momentum off the defensive stop, beginning to establish themselves defensively. Through the rest of the half the Ravens were able to string together a pair of key stops and lead at the half 35-32.
The Ravens held their lead in the third, led by five points from Emmanuel Ugbah as Ansah and Mingo continued to lead the Gryphons with eight and seven points each.
Guelph gave the Ravens everything they could in the fourth, taking a pair of Dylan McFee three-pointers to the bank and jumping out to a five-point lead. After Marjok Okado hit a clutch three, Noah Horobetz-Simpson scored five straight points as the Ravens pulled ahead. Despite one last push from Mingo, the Ravens would score on a beautiful layup on their next possession and finish off the visitors.
