Windsor clinched the No. 5 seed at the nationals with its 84-75 win in the OUA championship game and dropped Carleton to the 3 vs. 6 quarter-final. Since having two conference rivals meet in the first round is supposed to be avoided, the only place left for the Gee-Gees was the 2-7 game, meaning they'll be playing a deep UBC Thunderbirds team instead of the Brandon Bobcats (who are good but go only seven deep), whom Windsor will face. Here's the schedule for Friday:
- (1) Concordia vs. (8) Saint Mary's:, 12 noon Anything after their conference tournament -- upsetting Cape Breton in the semi and getting 29 from Mark McLoughlin in a two-point overtime loss to Acadia in the final -- is probably gravy for SMU, who may be overmatched against a very quick Stingers squad.
- (4) Brandon vs. (5) Windsor, 2 p.m.: Bet on a team who wears blue and gold. Just a hunch.
- (2) UBC vs. (7) U of O, 5 p.m.: The Canada West champion Thunderbirds are much deeper than Brandon, whom Ottawa could have ended up facing.
- (3) Carleton vs. (6) Acadia, 7 p.m.: The Axemen can shoot the three (44%, with Peter Leighton making more than half his triples), but their 13 losses on the year is more than Carleton's had in the past three.
Carleton and Ottawa are on the same half of the bracket. If they end up playing in the semis, will that be the one that TSN won't show?
Last night, the Lancers pretty much borrowed the Carleton formula of using outside shooting, offensive boards and heavy-metal loud crowds to eat away at the other team's will. Shooting form Kloostra (23 points, 5-of-7 on threes) and Steer (18, 4-of-6) put a charge into the 3,500 on hand time and again, especially late in the first half when Kloostra scored eight straight to open a big lead. The Lancers shot better from outside the arc (61%) than inside (40%). Meantime, Greg Surmacz (16 points, 11 rebounds) outmuscled Carleton's big men for a couple timely putbacks, helping Windsor go up by as much as 17 before the Ravens rallied late.
The Ravens made a late 11-0 run, then Stu Turnbull (16 points) missed an open look to cut the lead to three -- but he's so dead-on over the last month, it's hard to fault him. Oz Jeanty added 25 for the Ravens, who like Windsor made more than half their threes, but couldn't hit anything from inside the 3-point line. In fairness, Carleton did play its bench more, and it's possible they figure being a 2 or 3 seed doesn't make a ton of difference.
MELLOW YELLOW... NOT EXACTLY
Windsor Star resident reactionary Bob Duff has an issue with the Ravens going to Halifax after failing to win the OUA (which was also the case last season). CIShoops.ca is asking why Duff didn't have a problem with the Lancers having home court for the Wilson Cup despite Carleton having a better regular-season record (home court for the final rotates between the divisions).
There are eight spots at the nationals for the 42 teams across the CIS -- one in five. That works out to two bids each for Canada West and the OUA, with 13 and 16 teams respectively. If Duff cared to look around, this afternoon the Alberta Pandas and Simon Fraser Clan will play for the CIS women's basketball title, and they finished second and third in Canada West.
So Carleton is hardly alone.
Duff should mellow out and be careful what he wishes for. In a true mythical true OUA championship with no East-West designations, the Lancers would have had to go through Ottawa twice -- remember, the Gee-Gees also had a better regular-season record than the Lancers.
One last note: St. FX standout Garry Gallimore, the Woodroffe grad, fouled out after scoring only six points in the X-Men's upset loss against Acadia in the Atlantic semi on Friday. That may have been his final CIS game.
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment