Just eight teams remain in the race to the Critelli Cup as the Carleton Ravens open their playoff campaign on Saturday night when they host McMaster at 6:00 p.m.
The 19-1 Ravens enter the playoffs on a twelve-game winning streak while McMaster is coming off a 72-71 win over Laurier on Wednesday night.
McMaster trailed 23-16 after the first quarter but cut the Golden Hawks lead to two at the half before narrowly edging their visitors in the fourth quarter. Jenna Button paced Mac to the quarters with 19 points, after leading the Marauders with 366 in the regular season.
Offensively, McMaster is a tough matchup for anyone in the OUA, having scored the third most points in the conference with 1654. But Mac will need to step up their defensive play if they want to slow a Carleton team that was first in the OUA and third in Canada in scoring with 80.6 points per game. Defensively slowing down the Ravens could prove difficult for McMaster who finished the regular season 11th with 65.7 points against per game.
Look for Carleton to bring their high-pressure defence straight to the Marauders, Carleton also led the OUA on the defensive end with 53.5 points allowed per game.
The two teams met way back on December first with the Ravens leading from tip-to-tail for an 86-56 victory. Carleton started the night at the Burridge Gym in Hamilton, Ontario, red hot, shooting 42.9% from the field and from beyond the arc in the first quarter while keeping the Marauders to only 20% shooting.
Mac was able to cool off Carleton late, but not before the Ravens had five players in double-digits led by 14 points and 17 rebounds from Jacqueline Urban (Ancaster, Ont.). Led by Urban's 17 rebounds, Carleton managed much of the night's pace by controlling 59 of 88 rebounds in the game and outscoring McMaster 30-12 in the paint.