Saturday 1 March 2008

OUA East Championship: Ravens pull away for decisive win

Carleton 75, Ottawa 56 6'7" Aaron Doornekamp keyed a game-deciding 24-9 run to end the third quarter and 6'4" Ryan Bell sent a message to voters for OUA East Defensive Player-of-the-Year by harrassing 6'4" Josh Gibson-Bascombe all evening as the Ravens remained undefeated against CIS competition. The Gee-Gees scored the first 4 points of the third quarter to lead by 3 at 34-31 and when 6'9" Dax Dessureault blocked Doornekamp's shot inside, the Gee-Gees appeared to have the momentum. But Gibson-Bascombe dribbled into traffic and turned it over, starting a 10-0 Ravens run that essentially decided the game. Doornekamp was instrumental in the run including a pair of free throws on an unsportsmanlike call against Dessureault when the pair got tangled up on the floor and Dessureault appeared to retaliate long after the whistle sounded. Gibson-Bascombe had one final flurry, scoring 4 consecutive points and when 6'3" Donnie Gibson converted a jumper, the Gee-Gees were back to within 5 at 45-40 but then Carleton iced the game with a 10-3 run to end the quarter leading by 12. The deeper Ravens rotated players in consistently and were the much fresher side when it counted as several Gee-Gees appeared winded by late in the third quarter. After defeating a very good Queen's team by 50 last weekend and now handling the Gee-Gees with relative ease the Ravens are hitting their stride and with all their remaining games in Ottawa. Carleton wins the OUA East championship and will host the Wilson Cup next Saturday with OUA West champions Western Mustangs visiting. The Gee-Gees travel to St. Catharines for the third OUA spot at the Nationals when they meet Brock Badgers in what will be a jam-packed Bob Davis Gymnasium.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

hmmmmm .... Doornekamp instigating Dessereault into an unsportsmanlike. Surprise, surprise ...

Anonymous said...

Doornekamp was the unsportsman since he purposely hooked Dax and pulled him down ... The good natured Dessaurault would hardly retaliate unless provoked! Sorry but Carleton pulled a cheap game ... slashing, hacking and taking shots at Ottawa all night in full view of supportive officiating ... Why does no one ever talk about this side of the Carleton squad ... very classless!

Anonymous said...

anonymous, this was my point exactly and i agree with you wholeheartedly. Many people, however, somehow feel that Carleton is God's gift to Canadian basketball and we can question nothing they do. I think if mics could be placed near the court and zoom-in tape distributed, CIS officials and fans might hear and see a very different side of the Carleton squad and their fearless Mike Moser candidate. And as for COY .. just because your team goes undefeated (which was not a stretch, in this case), it is not a foregone conclusion that you should win it. There are many more criteria and there were some great coaching jobs done this year in the OUA East, most notably by Mike Katz, the deserving winner. Likewise, there are many criteria for the selection of the wild card entry and it should not be a foregone conclusion that a fourth team from Ontario will not get it. I hope that the powers that be take a long, close look comparing every parameter they can think of (perhaps those outside of what are traditionally used) to decide the best possible team to make it in last to the national draw.

Anonymous said...

This is just an observation of statistics and what I've seen in person this year. Aaron Doornekamp knows how to work the referees similar to Dave Smart, getting crucial calls at critical points in the games. If you look over the course of the season, and see who fouls out of games Carleton plays, notice the unusually strong amount of foul calls put against teams starting power forwards.

Power forwards are usually placed on Doornekamp to cover him in the perimeter, leaving most teams true centers to covering Jean-Marie, Aaron Chapman or Kevin McLeery. However every power forward in the league seems to foul out every time they play Carleton, specifically in the OUA East.

Check out the following players whenever they play Carleton:
Toronto:Nick Snow, Ahmed Nazmi, Ryerson:Joey Imbrogno,
York: Wes Anderson, Matt Terejko Ottawa:Nem Baletic, Dave Labentowicz
Queens:Jon Ogden, Nick DiDonato

These players all are faced with the daunting task of covering Doornekamp, most of which finished the game with 4-5 fouls. Without some outside help, you cannot be telling me that every player can only foul Doornekamp as a way of playing defense. These are some solid defensive players, and while Doornekamp is the class of the OUA East, he is consistently the recipient of questionnable calls favouring the ravens.

As a team Carleton plays an up-tempo, physical brand of defensive basketball. Their downfall on offense has been when teams re-paid the favour, trapping and wearing down their big men playing a physical brand of basketball. Ottawa seemed most sucessful at doing this to Carleton over the past few years, and a very physical Western Mustangs might provide the same thing.

Anonymous said...

I don't know what game you two obviously disgruntled Ottawa U fans were watching, but from where I sat the Gee-Gees were giving as good as they were getting.
And as far as the officiating goes, they almost lost control of the game.
There was a lot of extra-curricular stuff going on from BOTH sides that wasn't called.
Hence, the tempers were flaring up for both team to the boiling point.
And Dax isn't the happy go lucky guy you make him out to be...I have seen him swing those big elbows of his at opponents heads in games that did not involve Carleton.
He may be a teddy bear off court, but on the floor he is a grizzly.

Anonymous said...

being disgruntled and being delusionary is two different things ... i my friend can attest to being disgruntled for obvious reasons ... you on the other hand have no excuse if indeed you were at the game ... furthermore any 'full' witted person realizes that when you are provoked or chided it is usually in your best interest to at the very least attempt to fight fire with fire ... bullying and aggression is never Ottawa's first course of action ... i'm not sure Carleton can say the same ... but oh well ... this is the type of play that will not help elevate the profile of CIS basketball!

Anonymous said...

Like I said before, the officiating was a problem for both teams.
Too much stuff was let go early, and the game degenerated somewhat because of that.
And if you want to talk about bullying tactics, the Ravens have nothing on Bob Bain's York Lions.
When York had the likes of Dan Eves and Jordan Foebel, it was 40 minutes of WWE.

Anonymous said...

No mention of Ottawa coach David DeAveiro grabbing the ball and throwing it away from an official, not once but twice!? Is that classy? Fortunately the second time he was assessed a technical which allowed the Ravens to extent their third quarter lead from 8 to 12.