Hoop Ravens put kibosh on Hawks
The legendary dean of Ontario University Athletics coaches, Peter Campbell, was left shaking his head in a measure of bewilderment.
His Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks tried a variety of defences, including a bit of zone and full-court pressure, and though they did not shoot the ball particularly well, they played relatively hard and kept their mistakes to a respectable nine turnovers. He even delivered a variety of motivational addresses during timeouts.
Yet, his troops still walked out of the Ravens’ Nest on Friday having been spanked 104-68 by the topranked Carleton Ravens.
“Carleton is Carleton,” he noted. “I didn’t think we played that badly. But their big three, one had a double-double and two had double digits. Our big three, not so much. You gotta learn, when the bright lights go on, the prime time guys gotta come and play. Some of that was Carleton’s defence and some of that just us not being confident.”
Laurier hit a pair of treys as they broke to an 8-6 lead, but Carleton answered with a 10-0 outburst. With point guard Phillip Scrubb and swingman Thomas Scrubb playing over top of the smaller Hawk guards, Tyson Hinz proving utterly unguardable one-on-one in the blocks and Carleton cleaning the defensive glass, the Ravens extended their margin to 56-29 at the half.
Although Max Allin and Owen Coulthard briefly got on track from the perimeter for Laurier in the second half, they couldn’t get any closer than 28.
Hinz admitted to a bit of delight at seeing he wasn’t being doubleteamed in the blocks. “If it doesn’t come, you gotta make em pay.”
Ravens coach Dave Smart said his troops did a good job on boards and taking advantage of the mismatches, particularly Hinz in the post.
Hinz paced 7-0 Carleton with 24. Phillip Scrubb added 21 and Thomas Scrubb had a double-double with 15 points and 12 boards. Allin led 3-4 Laurier with 13 points.
Meanwhile, the distaff Ravens dropped a 58-29 decision to Laurier in a turnover-plagued affair which demonstrated that aesthetics and basketball can be mutually exclusive.
The Hawks broke down the Ravens with pull-up jumpers and were quicker to the loose balls as they took an early 11-7 lead. Elizabeth Roach periodically rallied the Ravens vaguely within reach, but they repeatedly handled the ball with aplomb of airport baggage handlers and relinquished a 16-5 run down the stretch.
Across town, the 6-1 uOttawa GeeGees dusted 2-4 Waterloo 80-48 as Stephanie Macdonald scored 26, Julia Soriano 14, Angela Tilk 10 and Francesca Bellehumeur-Moya 10.