Saturday 5 March 2011

Lakehead 77, Carleton 62

In a dominating defensive effort that created 22 Carleton turnovers, the Lakehead Thunderwolves captured their first-ever Wilson Cup OUA championship with a convincing win over the Ravens.  Lakehead doubled down on 6'6" Tyson Hinz at virtually every opportunity and rotated with purpose and energy.  T-Wolves also guarded the ball very well and pressured in certain situations, taking numerous charges on Raven drives and the Ravens displayed little confidence as the game progressed.  MVP Jamie Searle had 22 points as the Thunderwolves put another wrench into the seeding committees job.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Ravens actually had 25 TO's according to the box score.
Purpose and energy describes perfectly the way Lakehead played....something the Ravens sorely lacked.
Carleton quite obviously had its worst game of the year.
In fact, one has to back several years to find a game in which Carleton was trounced this badly.
The Ravens were outworked, out muscled and dare I say, out coached.
Scott Morrison took Dave Smart's handbook and threw it back at him.
Everything the Ravens are known for...pressuring defense forcing turnovers, fast rotations causing several charge calls and good perimeter shooting....Lakehead took these things and clobbered them with it.
The only solace the Ravens can from this drubbing is that in 2007, when they were handled by Windsor in the Cup final,they bounced back the following week to win the national championship.

Anonymous said...

Carleton is a very good team, but their record is highly inflated.

Beating on the likes of RMC, Queen's and Laurentian doesn't get you ready to play other very good teams.

Their lack of post presence will hurt them in the Nationals.

They will have their work cut out for them to win it all.

Adam Connolly said...

This was a great win for Lakehead and much deserved, but lets not kid ourselves.. Carleton is still the team to beat next weekend.. Smart will have them bounce back from this..

Anonymous said...

Wow, yes, Lakehead did everything we normally watch Carleton do, just like anonymous said. A classic where two teams come to the game having had to expend a tremendous amount of physical and emotional fuel the night before. The winner in the next game then, is the one where in the face of sheer exhaustion - you shift to a next mental gear and push through. Lakehead did that in text book fashion, and congrats to them.

What I am facinated by is what seems like Carleton's overnight shift to 'one-on-one' offensive b-ball. I think that their assists were like 7 and 9 Friday night and Saturday nite. Seemed like one pass and a hard drive to the hoop. Or not even one pass - sometimes who ever was dribbling up the court just kept on going to the basket with no intention to stop! over and over again. It kinda worked - lots of people scored. But I saw Scrubb drive and drive again in what looked like questionable circumstances, with not even a hint of looking for a kick out or off. Hobin drove often too, at least he seemed to have a few kick outs and offs and created some ball movement too, but it was all very odd to watch. Thompsen, Kenny, Manigat all driving one-on-one ...

Lakehead on the other hand, had great ball movement and confidently used the whole court to create plays;to which Carleton seemed no where to be seen in their normally tight and extensive rotations.

So Carleton had little offensive movement and rotations, and suffered the same on defense two nights in a row. The Dave Smart I know would normally yank a player after one poorly decided upon one-on-one take and one missed rotation that left a shooter wide open for 3.

And so, I'm thinkin' the offensive shift is some kinda strategy?? Maybe? I don't know ..

And yes, they are hurtin' cowboys when it comes to well rounded complete post players way too small.

Well, here's to an awesome nationals. Teams across the country getting stronger.

Anonymous said...

THe ravens record is not highly inflated at all they have beat very good teams this year.Its not like all of there wins were aginst lesser teams again they have some big wins vs some very good teams.With that said credit should go to lakehead they did play a great game.

Jt

Anonymous said...

There are 16 teams in the OUA and not all of them are like Laurentian, Queen's and RMC.
To suggest all of Ontario is as weak as those teams is simply disrespecting the entire conference.
Carleton lost primarily because they did not do the things that got them to 30-0 in the first place.
In fact, it is fair to say Lakehead beat Carleton at its own game.
Losing the Wilson Cup in itself wasn't as disappointing as the fact Carleton played so poorly.
As far as Carleton lacking a true post...who has Carleton had, apart from Kevin McCleery, in the last 10-11 years who can be described as a true prototypical post?
Adam Falsetto maybe?
Anyway, Carleton has done just fine without big "bigs" for most of the past decade.
Carleton has always been relatively small in the front court, from Josh Poirier to Doornekamp.
McCleery was the exception.
Carleton's strength has always been at guard and the wing.
Being huge doesn't always matter...just ask York.

Unknown said...

I say I wnat to watch the game where is it archived anyone please.Martin.