Saturday 8 March 2008

OUA Wilson Cup: Carleton pulls away to win 4th Wilson Cup

Carleton 81, Western 64 (or something close to that) The Ravens pulled away to lead by 15 early in the fourth quarter and then rolled to the comfortable win. Likely but not confirmed Kitch MacPherson award winner (Wilson Cup MVP) 6'7" Aaron Doornekamp (23 points, 9 rebounds) and 6'2" Stu Turnbull each finished with over 20 pts for the Ravens as Doornekamp dominated at both ends while Turnbull (30 points, most in the second half, 8 rebounds, 5 assists) opened things up in the second half by continually getting to the rim off the bounce. Carleton gapped the Mustangs with an 11-2 run off the start of the fourth quarter with the Mustangs making their final run after 6'1" Matt Curtis (13 points) hit back-to-back 3's but the Ravens quickly reestablished control, allowing them to enter next week's Nationals undefeated against CIS competition. 6'4" Ryan Bell (10 points, 10 rebounds, 0 turnovers) knocked down a buzzer-beating 3 on a nice feed from Doornekamp to give Carleton a six point lead entering the fourth. The third quarter had much more tempo than the first half and the Ravens jumped out to an 11 point lead at 51-40, looking like they might gap Western even more. But Coach Dave Smart went to his bench and quickly 6'1" Jason Milliquet (11 points) and 6'10" Colin Laforme (5 points) hit 3's, part of a 10-2 Western run to bring them back to within 3. The first half for the most part was as sluggish as the inclement weather in the Nation's Capital but the Mustangs scored the final 5 points of the second quarter, including a long buzzer-beating 3 by Curtis to climb back to within 4 at the break. Doornekamp had 16 first-half points but uncharacteristically has missed several open looks and Carleton did not converted around the basket to allow the 'Stangs to remain close. 6'6" Brad Smith (6 points on 3 for 13 shooting) was quiet until the final 4 minutes of the half when he erupted for a pair of two handed slams inside off nice Western sets. The teams stayed with 3 to 4 points of each other until midway through the second when Bell and Doornekamp got going and the Ravens held Western scoreless for a fairly long stretch. The game finally opened up with Carleton taking a nine point lead late but Smith and Curtis made big plays to draw Western closer at the half.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Personally, I thought Stu Turnbull should have been selected Wilson Cup MVP.
30 points, with 20 coming in the second half I believe.
Doornekamp gets the ink, but Turnbull just goes out every night and turns in a phenomenal effort.