Carleton Ravens claim 7th straight university basketball championship
HALIFAX — The Carleton Ravens captured their seventh consecutive Canadian university men’s basketball title on Sunday.
Ryan Ejim scored 19 points, and Kaza Kajami-Keane had 15 points and 11 rebounds as the Ravens withstood a fierce Rams comeback to beat Ryerson 78-69.
The powerhouse Ravens have now won 13 W.P. McGee Trophies, more than any other school in history.
Fifth-year guard Adika PeterMcNeilly had 23 points, while Adam Voll had 12 points and nine boards for Ryerson.
The Ravens went a perfect 19-0 in the regular-season before being upset by Ryerson (17-2) in the Ontario conference final.
The Ravens capitalized on poor early shooting by Ryerson, which was looking for its first national title — in any sport — and led 19-13 to end the first quarter.
The defending champions went up by 11 midway through the second quarter and took a 39-28 advantage into the halftime break.
The Ravens stretched their advantage to as many as 24 points in the third, but a fierce 15-0 Rams run made it just a nine-point game win column,” Sanchez says. “With myself, Stro, Liriano, Happer, Marco, you’ve got five really good, quality starters who can get you back on track in a hurry.”
Asked if he can remember a time when he had his rotation this set when spring training began, Gibbons pauses to think. And the pause stretches. “Maybe?,” he offers. “It’s probably happened, but I don’t know that we’ve had a year when we’ve felt this good about it, that’s for sure. There’s always been a question mark or two.”
This year’s question mark is about which one of them will get the ball on Opening Day. Gibbons says they haven’t figured that out yet, but they could go with any of them.
“It’s kind of honour you can put on your wall, knowing you did it one time,” the manager says. “But, whoever we pick, we feel good.” with less than a minute to play in the quarter. Ejim converted a threepoint to send the Ravens into the fourth with a 63-51 lead.
The Rams kept the pressure on in the fourth, and a tip-in from Voll made it a six-point game with 4:20 to play. Another put-back by Voll with 1:22 to play had Ryerson within six points, but Connor Wood, the U Sports player of the year, converted a three-point play with 19 seconds left to clinch the victory for Carleton.
Earlier Sunday, a 27-point fourth quarter helped the Dalhousie Tigers top the McGill Redmen 69-63 in the bronze-medal game.
Trailing by eight entering the final 10 minutes, the Tigers went on a 17-8 run, taking the lead for good with just under three minutes left to play.
Forward Sven Stammberger led the way on the offensive end with eight points in the quarter and 20 overall. Guard Jenning Leung was McGill’s leading scorer with 17 points.
The third-place finish was the best result in men’s basketball history for Dalhousie, which finished fourth at last year’s championship.