CIS Corner: Smart says Windsor 'should have won by much more'

Notes on our teams of interest from The 613...

HOOPS

Ravens: Carleton bounced back from the loss to Windsor to beat Western 79-74 Saturday. It was a one-possession game several times in the final minutes, but Carleton never lost the lead, with Cole Hobin hitting a couple big threes from the left corner, including one with 2:30 left that stretched the lead to five.

One of the diehards at Canadian Hoops Talk called the exact margin Windsor's 12-point win over the Ravens in the OUA opener Friday.

This loss is probably not a shock. Dave Smart has a good sum-up over at Big Man on Campus:

"Windsor is very good. Surmacz is as good as it gets in the country. The score was not indicative of the game — they should have won by much more. They are a much better team than we are at this stage.

Carleton, which had 24 points from Aaron Doornekamp (he needed 22 shots, though), did lose on the same floor in the OUA final 19 months ago. Six-foot-8 centre Greg Surmacz and 6-foot-6 Andre Smyth are a pretty formidable duo and Carleton ended up minus-11 on the boards. The bottom line is Carleton will not Windsor for another four months, but like Greg Layson says, it's quite possible the OUA West has become a tougher division than the East.

Gee-Gees: Dax Dessureault was money -- 20 points on 7-of-9 from the field and 6-for-6 from the line and he helped foul out Surmacz in the Gee-Gees' 77-75 upset Saturday. Both of the Gee-Gees who were in double figures, Donnie Gibson and Jacob Gibson-Bascombe, were also perfect from the free-throw line.

Golden Gaels: A split of the opening weekend is probably OK for Queen's, even if it did not come in the order one might have anticipated. Mitch Leger and Baris Ondul came up big against Waterloo in a 72-67 win Friday.

WOMEN'S HOOPS

Ravens: It might get lost in the shuffle between the Carleton men losing, the CIS men's soccer championship in Ottawa and the Gee-Gees losing in the Yates Cup -- but attention should be paid to Carleton pulling out a 57-56 win over Western on Saturday.

Carleton's guard Tanya Perry (15 points, 10 rebounds) hit a tying three-pointer and a baseline jumper during a frantic final minute where the lead changed hands three times.

Last season it took Taffe Charles' Ravens eight tries to beat an OUA West team. This season they did it on their second.

HOCKEY

Gee-Gees: Former Frontenac Dan McDonald had six points over Ottawa's perfect home weekend, 7-3 over RMC Saturday after beating Queen's 5-4 in a shootout. Sean Smyth, the rookie forward, had a hat trick in the second game; all in all, it was a good weekend for the hockey Gee-Gees.

Incidentally, Cass Breukelman from the Ottawa women's team was quoted in a very good Toronto Star article that looked at the high concussion rates among female hockey players.

Golden Gaels: For two periods, Queen's managed to hang in with McGill despite dressing just 16 skaters, but ran out of gas in the third in Saturday's 4-1 loss to McGill. A one-point weekend is not good.

A much greater mind said it first: Queen's is a little like the Vancouver Canucks of the OUA. GoalieBrady Morrison, on a smaller scale, has been Captain Lou-like, but the offensive support is lacking. Queen's goal scorer, Matthew Hill, also came out with an injury.

It's not coming at a good time for the Gaels, whose last six games before the break are all against the Far East division. They also have Lakehead in the first games after the break; at least it's at home.

Tyler King had the call of Saturday's game at McGill at cfrc.ca. He might have more to saw about a rough weekend all-around for the Tricolour sextet.

FOOTBALL

A recap of the conference championship games is up at The CIS Blog.