"Now we've beaten them twice, so we have the confidence we can do it (win on Carleton’s floor) whereas in past years, they were just up there on this pedestal," Gee-Gees fifth-year senior Curtis Shakespeare said after capping his Seniors' Night by scoring 21 points in a 77-71 win (see the liveblog) that gave the U of O a season sweep of the four-time Canadian university champs.
"Now people know if you play hard, you can take Carleton out. It'll be a little bit harder playing at their place (if the teams meet in the division final on March 3), but we'll have fans there, we'll have our teammates and our bench, and that's what's most important."
Carleton (27-3 overall) and Ottawa (27-4) had already secured a 1-2 finish in the OUA East. No one among the 1,000-plus on hand treated last night as a nothing game, since making a case for the division to have two spots in next month's CIS Final 8 in Halifax was in the back of everyone's mind. The Gee-Gees shot 57% in the first half – Josh Gibson-Bascombe (19 points) and Kingston native Donnie Gibson were a perfect 5-for-5 on threes in the opening 20 – to take a 48-35 lead, then recovered nicely over the final minutes after Ravens reeled off a 19-4 run to start the second.
"We knew they were going to come out and make a run, that's why they're the champions," said Gee-Gees coach Dave DeAveiro. "We just had to keep out composure and try to get it inside… we got the buckets and got the fouls."
Shakespeare muscled inside time and again over the final minutes to score nine straight points over the final minutes. DeAveiro joked that Shakespeare ended up “making me look dumb” since he got to start mainly since he was a fifth-year senior, honoured before the game alongside fellow five-year players Jermaine Campbell and Alex McLeod.
"Shakespeare on any other team in the country starts," DeAveiro said as he savoured the win, young daughter Jordyn at his side. "He's so unselfish and understands his role as a sixth man here. He's unbelievable."
RAVENS ‘SLOPPY’
Carleton scuffled all night and shot just 39.7%, but had a chance to tie late before Oz Jeanty (20 points) missed a three with 35 seconds left. A 3½-minute scoreless drought midway through the second half and 48 points allowed was inexcusable by their standards.
"We had some bad decisions down the stretch," Ravens forward Aaron Doornekamp (14 points, eight rebounds) said. "We couldn’t stop them -- 48 points in the first half is just ridiculous."
"We were pretty sloppy with what we do," the Odessa native added. "We clean it up and fix the problems, we should be all right."
The Ravens had a 39-34 edge in boards, but Doornekamp said the Gee-Gees "kicked us around the glass. You can’t expect to win when you don’t get any rebounds."
Gibson, one of four Gee-Gees to total eight points on the night, was called on to play more than usual since McLeod and Sean Peter were in early foul trouble (44 fouls were called on the night). His 17-foot jumper with about 12 minutes left put Ottawa ahead for good.
"Donnie's just a guy who can shoot the lights out and he’s been doing it for us all year," Shakespeare said. "You need someone to hit a shot in a close game, you need someone to hit an open shot, Donnie can do it any time."
"That’s our team," Gibson said of his supporting turn. "One guy has a tough night or foul trouble, another guy makes up for it."
PLAYOFF MATCHUPS
Next Saturday, Carleton hosts the lowest surviving seed from Wednesday’s playoff games between sixth-place Ryerson and third-place Toronto, and fifth-place Queen’s and fourth-place York. The Gee-Gees host the other quarter-final winner in what should be a good set of division semis.
"It's too bad we didn't have a couple more (Final 8 berths)," Shakespeare said. "I think the majority of the talent is in our division . I don't want to step on anyone's toes, but that’s just my personal opinion."
ELSEWHERE...
- Queen's point guard Baris Ondul, who missed a couple games with an injured hamstring, put up 16 points to help the Gaels complete the regular season with a 72-61 win over RMC. Bring on York!
- Garry Gallimore, the Woodroffe grad who plays out East for St. FX, had a great weekend: 20 points in the X-Men's 84-79 victory over Acadia Saturday, 18 points (6-of-8 shooting) in the X-Men's big 80-68 win over UPEI on Friday.
- WOMEN'S HOOPS: The U of O lost 73-32 to Toronto Sunday, ending its season (Vankleek Hill's Kyla Burwash had five boards, five rebounds and four assists for Varsity). Carleton's year ended with a 77-57 playoff loss to the Laurentian Lady Vees Saturday in the other OUA East quarter-final; OUA East all-rookie pick Kelly Killoran led the Ravens with 16 points.
Kanata's Cassandra Carpenter, the province's top scorer who received her third straight OUA East most valuable player award Friday, led the Lady Vees with 19 points and nine boards vs. Carleton -- setting up a semi-final matchup against our Queen's Golden Gaels next Wednesday in Kingston.
By the way, about the award picks: Shout-out to Brant County since Gaels fifth-year post Claire Meadows from Brantford and York wing Laura MacCallum of nearly Paris were also named first-team all-stars. Another Gael, Jess Selinger, the country's leading free-throw shooter, was placed on the second team alongside Carleton's Susan Shaw-Davis and RMC's Jen Donofrio. The Gee-Gees' Melina Wishart joined Killoran on the rookie squad.
The Whig-Standard's fine sports scribe Patrick Kennedy has a nice feature on Donofrio and her RMC teammates, who have kept their chins up through FOUR straight winless seasons.
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
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