OTTAWA - The Carleton Ravens men's basketball season has ended following a 70-69 loss to the Brock Badgers.
Brock overcame an 11-point Ravens lead just before halftime and led by as many as 8 before Carleton clawed back in the final minute.
Both teams shot the ball well in the first quarter with Brock shooting 50% while Carleton wasn't far behind at 41.2%. The Badgers scored five-of-nine from the free throw line in the opening ten minutes while Marjok Okada was two-for-three from downtown for Carleton.
The game found some pace in the second quarter when Carleton's defense gave Brock all kinds of trouble, forcing them to shoot 3-13 from the field including a difficult 1-5 from beyond the arc. Jevon Brown didn't attempt a single field goal in the quarter while Jordan Tchuente was 2-5 playing a full ten minutes. Offensively, Augustas Brazdeikis and Marjok Okado led the Ravens charge, with Brazdeikis recording four points while Okado had three points and three rebounds.
The physical level rose in the third quarter with Brock collecting 10 fouls and the Ravens 7. Though they took nine trips to the line, Brock went 5-9 and could not cut into Carleton's lead despite Brown and Tchuente each scoring six points. Ravens star rookie guard Xavier found his range in the third, going 2-3 while also being perfect at the line to lead Carleton in scoring with 7 points.
The Badgers exploded to start the fourth quarter, holding the Ravens to three points for much of the period before Xavier Spencer hit a clutch three to reduce the lead. Jevon Brown scored 13 points as the Badgers flipped the lead, and it would come down to the final minute, where both teams appeared to commit some fatal errors which sent Marjok Okado to the line down by three.
After hitting his first free throw, Okada needed to miss his second with the Ravens earning either a foul or a tip-in rebound, but it wasn't to be, as Okado hit the right side of the rim only for his shot to fall in, ending the contest.
"For us a lot of rookies were playing a pile of minutes, first year they've ever been playing in these minutes and they did very very well," Charles said of his rookies. "Guys who have never played in a playoff game playing 32-34 minutes, these are some tough, tough minutes to play and they will benefit from it."
"We fell short and it hurts," he explained. "These guys are upset right now, but as a coach whose been doing this for a long time, I could just tell we weren't ready to compete at the highest level."
"I look forward to next year, I feel like the minutes we put into these guys will benefit these guys, will benefit them early, we'll get a good jump and everybody will be motivated by our failure."
