Ravens Sports Info (Photo: Charles Fortin)
The Carleton Ravens will go into the break with a loss following a last-second defeat at the hands of the Ottawa Gee-Gees.
Xavier Spencer (Edmonton, Alta.) paced the Ravens out of the gate with the team’s first 8 points as Carleton took an 8-3 lead. Ottawa would respond with a 9-2 run of their own before Marjok Okado (Calgary, Alta.) went back-to-back with a floater and a deep three for a 17-12 lead. By the end of the first quarter, the Ravens led 29-16
It was a more back-and-forth game in the second quarter as the Ravens continued to lead but the Gee-Gees used their defense to chip away, creating steals and scoring in transition. Xavier Spencer would stay hot for the Ravens finish the first half with a team high 13 points. The second quarter would be a tie, with the two teams fighting for every inch as Carleton continued to lead by 13 at the half.
The Gee-Gees defence continued to generate points off turnovers early, but Latiff was able to carry over his hot play from the first half with four points early in the quarter to keep Carleton ahead by 11. Midway through the quarter the Gee-Gees had cut the lead to 10 before Aubrey Dorey-Havens (North Vancouver, BC) hit a deep three. After a brilliant circus shot from Justin Ndjock-Tadjore, the Ravens would respond with another big three from Latiff.
Khalifa Koulamallah would nail drain back-to-back buckets for the Gee-Gees which began of a snowball of momentum. After Koulamallah hit a deep three, the Gee-Gees would create a steal in transition and Ndjock-Tadjore would slam it home to cut the lead to 63-53 after three quarters.
The Gee-Gees would come storming out to start the fourth quarter, after cutting the lead to five before generating a pair of steals for massive buckets to take a 66-63 lead with just over six minutes to play.
Xavier Spencer would stop the Gee-Gees run with a deep three to cut the Ottawa lead to 2. At the defensive end the Ravens would generate a stop before Spencer would be the beneficiary of great ball movement down low to tie the game at 68. The Ravens would then go a perfect five-for-five from the free throw line to pull ahead by five with 2:08 to play.
The two teams would trade leads with Ottawa pulling ahead but with 33 seconds to play Wazir Latiff would hit a corner jumper while being fouled to take the lead. Latiff wouldn’t make good on his trip to the line and the Gee-Gees would take over with enough time for one play. Coming back up the court Guemeta nailed a jumper from the elbow to put the Gee-Gees ahead with 1 second remaining.
