LIVEBLOG: DOORNEKAMP LEADS WAY, LITTLE PLAYS MAINTAIN RAVENS’ WINNING WAYS

Oz Jeanty has done something that happens almost never in Ottawa – he delivered on a bold promise.

It's kind of fitting that the Carleton Ravens guard goes out having made good on his frosh-year "five championships in five years" boast but isn't flying home with the Final 8 MVP trophy after the Carleton Ravens' 52-49 win win over the Brandon Bobcats in Halifax. It's a team streak and Odessa, Ontario’s own Aaron Doornekamp, who made many plays which went beyond his 20 points, including those go-ahead threes in the final minutes, is coming back for the Drive For Six (and beyond, maybe).

Here's one play to isolate on: Midway through the second half, Doornekamp drew a charge on Brandon's Yuri Whyms, who's probably a good 30 lbs. heavier. On the ensuing Ravens possession, Kevin McCleery got an Ed Nealyesque putback for his only basket of the game -- that was a four-point swing in a game that was decided by three. Whyms ended up fouling out, which Barnaby Craddock''s Bobcats could ill afford due to their thin bench.

That sequence -- Doornekamp taking the charge, McCleery with the bucket -- was bigger than that alley-oop dunk Brandon’s Dany Charlery threw down which led Sportscentre's recap. So was the Doornekamp bounce pass to Manny Jean-Marie for a reverse layup which put Carleton back ahead after Brandon had tied it 39-39 and seemed to be taking control with about eight minutes left.

The emphasis is on seemed. Brandon later took the lead twice and the result was in doubt until the final missed three at the buzzer by Adam Hartman, but the Bobcats -- maybe a little weary while playing a third game in three days -- beat themselves with tiny errors that Carleton seems to avoid. The Ravens got more hustle plays, such as Rob Saunders chasing down two offensive rebounds to give Jeanty (15 points) a chance to hit his first basket of the day toward the end of the first half.

Ryan Bell also had that prototype Carleton game. He didn't drift mentally while he was going 0-for-6, but ended up grabbing a team-high nine rebounds while going up against a big Brandon frontcourt.

If Brandon will go home feeling like it should have won, which they certainly will, well then, they just don't understand Carleton's unique talent. The Ravens essentially turned basketball into a football-style time of possession game, limiting Brandon to an absurdly low 44 shots, 23 fewer than Carleton attempted.

That proved to be Carleton's kind of fight. It wasn’t pretty, but to a man the Ravens did all the little things which win basketball games.

That won’t be enough for Doornekamp and the Ravens to keep winning national championships, especially with Jeanty gone. Give a great team enough chances, and it will lose eventually. It didn't today.

Quick notes from the championship game (most recent first):

SECOND HALF

• Doornekamp's two long threes both camne off the same pick-and-pop play run with Jeanty, sandwiched around a Chad Jacobsen triple, putting Carleton ahead 48-46 with 1:56 left. Jeanty followed with a runner and a defensive rebound, and it's a four-point lead with under a minute on the clock. Brandon needs a minor miracle.
• Another smart play by Jeanty -- Yul Michel was leading Brandon up on the break with a chance to go up four or five, then he turned around and threw the ball right to Oz. What happened there?
• Doornekamp fouled out Brandon big man Yuri Whyms -- who scored his number today. Whyms wears double zero.
• Jean-Emmanuel Jean-Marie -- whom Rod Black is calling Manny --got a big reverse layin to restore Carleton's lead after Stevens Marcelin missed a 1-and-1 to put Brandon ahead. That hurt for the Bobcats.
• There's eight minutes left and Carleton's scored just seven points in the half -- like Dave Smart said at halftime, the Ravens are having trouble getting good looks vs. that Brandon zone. Carleton is scraping by with their defence and rebounding, but Brandon is matching that.
• Before Marcelin's three-point play tied it, Brandon had two chances to tie -- Dany Charlery missed from about 15 and Chad Jacobsen committed a travel.
• Obviously, the story is Yul Michel's D on Oz Jeanty, who's 3-for-15 from the field.
• Jacobsen, Whyms and Adam Hartman: 1-for-11 from the field at one point.
• If the CIS had a sixth man award, it might have to go to Stevens Marcelin, or maybe Ottawa's Curtis Shakespeare.

FIRST HALF

• Carleton's offensive rebounding gave Oz Jeanty a chance to find his shooting stroke. With about four minutes left in the half, Rob Saunders got two offensive boards in a row, giving Jeanty a chance to hit a three from the left corner for his first basket today. His next basket, a two, came after McCleery batted a long rebound to Jeanty, who moments later hit from the baseline. Oz has 10 for the half.
• Between Charlery's alley-oop dunk and that sick behind-the-back pass Jacobsen threw to Stevens Marcellin for a basket with about a minute left in the half, Brandon has plenty of bells and whistles. Of course, bells and whistles don't win in basketball -- defence and rebounding does.
• The TSN guys were really making hay out of Oz's slow start, but isn't a bigger issue that Brandon hasn't taken advantage while Carleton's star was looking for his shooting stroke?
• At the 11-minute mark, the score was Kingston area 15, Brandon 12 -- Doornekamp scored Carleton's first seven points (on his way to 12 for the half) and the Frontenac grads, Stu Turnbull and Saunders (two three-balls) scored the next eight.
• Rod Black is an enjoyable basketball play-by-play guy -- ever since he lost the ol' soup strainer last year, he's been a whole new broadcaster. Maybe TSN should let him call more than two games at next year's CIS Final 8.
• Hard to tell off TV but there seem to be issues with the officiating. There always are.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.