Willy Manigat sweated as much as anyone else during the final 81 seconds of the Ottawa Gee-Gees' 64-62 win over the previously unbeaten Carleton Ravens in the inaugural MBNA Capital Hoops Classic -- and he wasn't even on the floor.
If you're looking for a local player who stepped into the spotlight on a night that was a showcase for Ottawa's basketball community -- 9,730 fans came to Scotiabank Place, the most ever a regular-season Canadian university basketball game -- start with the Samuel Genest grad who came off the bench to score 13 points in the No. 9 Gee-Gees' win. Manigat didn't get away easily, though. He had to worry his big night would be marred by a mistake -- namely, having the ball stolen with a minute and half left by Carleton's Stu Turnbull, which led to his fifth foul, a pair of free throws and Aaron Doornekamp's tying layup on the Ravens' next possession. However, teammate Josh Gibson-Bascombe (22 points) came through with a jumper from 12 feet with 4.7 seconds left to hand No. 1 Carleton its first conference loss.
"I thank my teammates for that," Manigat said of the game's climax. "I thought I might have lost the game for our team but they came back. They had my back, that's what our team does. There's 14 guys in that changeroom that just go out and battle for each other."
The event had the ending it merited -- the student sections in the corners of the arena made the place noisier than it gets for most Senators games. Role players such as Manigat (scoring average of 4.4 entering last night) and Carleton's Daron Leonard, who scored seven of his nine points during an 11-0 Raven run in the second half, had their moments, but it came down to big names at the end. That would be Gibson-Bascombe (22 points) and Sean Peter (13) for Ottawa (12-3 in the OUA). Doornekamp and Oz Jeanty had 14 points apiece for Carleton (14-1).
"Tonight was spectacular," said Manigat. "To all the fans, we'd like to say thank you, keep supporting Canadian basketball, keep supporting the Gee-Gees and the Ravens, and hopefully we can fill up the whole centre next time."
"It's really promising for when the nationals come here (in 2008)," Turnbull said. "I was a little nervous when I first heard what they were planning to do, bring the game out here. I thought there would be a thousand people and you'd hear crickets."
Thanks largely to Manigat, the Gee-Gees, who have had questions raised about their depth, had a 21-16 edge in bench scoring.
"Willy's a great player, more and more people are going to find out about him," Peter said of his roommate. "You're seeing quick flashes of what he's going to be in the years to come."
Peter added that the Gee-Gees weren't worried when Carleton wiped out that 12-point deficit and then went ahead 46-45. (Manigat came through then too, making a layup and a three of the night on successive possessions.)
"With a great team like that you know they have a big run in them," Peter said. "They're not No. 1 for nothing. We just had to be ready when it came. It was just a matter of execution and rebounding. That's what we did and we came out with the victory."
The Ravens had a slow start on what Turnbull called "the big stage, the big spotlight." Carleton shot just 36% in the first half, falling behind 34-29.
"You kind of make your own breaks," he said. "It's not so much that things weren't going right for us, but we weren't doing things we needed to make it go right. A lot of times when like Aaron or myself or whoever would take the ball to the basket, we would be kind of expecting -- or hoping -- to get foul calls. You need to make those shots."
Turnbull added that the Ravens didn't put much stock in their rivals' recent losses to York and Queen's and subsequent fall in the CIS rankings.
"We played very well to beat a couple of other teams which they lost to," he said. "I think part of it was that they were looking ahead to this game, maybe."
If that's true, it was worth it for the Gee-Gees, considering the result and how many people were on hand to watch. Hopefully that sums up the evening.
Related: Gibson-Bascombe wins it for Gee-Gees (CIS Hoops.ca), Live Blog
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
Funny, we don't hear the "Ottawa is a bad sports town" drumbeat when we're setting national attendance records - first the CHL, now CIS basketball.
This is what all university sports in this city, and nationally, should be like. A great game, great venue, decent size crowds.
Even concessions where you can buy pizza, Tim Horton's coffee, and even beer. Yes, beer at a university sports event,and the roof did not fall in.
Hats off to SBL's marketing and sales group for demonstrating what professional target marketing can do. Target marketing means accurately identifying who your potential customers are first, and then "effectively" executing a sales plan to your targets, rather than going for a scattergun approach.Having a great product such as CIS sport helps.
SBP is committed to holding the Hoops Classic for a minimium of four years. Next year it will be uOttawa's home game. Now that Carleton is getting back into men's hockey, an annual Puck Classic is a must. It should be an easier sell than hoops, as hockey is the #1 spectator sport in Ottawa.
What about football? An annual Ottawa-Queen's Pigskin Classic would seem doable. CIS sport is a good product. When you have a good product getting the fans to buy it comes down to marketing. Univerities have been terrible at marketing their teams.. Hopefully, last night's game will open their eyes to the possibities, and serve as a guide as to how it can be done.
SBP is far from both campuses. That they had a record CIS crowd puts the lie to the idea that Frank Clair stadium is too far from campus to draw a university football crowd. It is a lot closer to uOttawa than SBP is to either campus. It is not the location of FC that has been the problem. It is the lack of effective marketing that has been the problem.
Excellent points.
GoGades, you know I'm a newcomer here and at first fell into the negative thinking. Since the summer, I've thought this market just needed to be "re-purposed" -- more emphasis on the universities and high schools, and maybe an indie-league baseball team with a shorter schedule than Triple A.
I would argue the novelty of playing in Scotiabank Place was a big draw -- just like the most-attended Vanier Cups came when Skydome-Rogers Centre was new. However, that doesn't account for 9,730 fans showing up, nearly double initial expectations.
Overall, this is great for Ottawa sports. Having a good university scene can do wonders for town's rep in sports. Halifax (much smaller town, but a capital city too) gives a ton of support to SMU and Dalhousie, and everyone there has forgotten that they have had minor pro teams that didn't work out.
Great feedback. And yes, I have called for a Puck Classic.
Post a Comment