CIS Corner: Ravens shut door minus Doornekamp; historic hockey win

Notes on our athletes/teams from The 613...

MEN'S HOOPS

• Ravens: There's been some questions raised over at cisblog.ca over the nature of the foot injury which kept Aaron Doornekamp out of Carleton's 76-69 win on Saturday (full disclosure: Yours truly was at work, and the cable carrier there isn't Rogers, so it was SOL for following a very good game).
  
  The upshot is the Ravens' potential next two games, the OUA East semi-final and final, are meaningful to them, but maybe more meaningful for eventual West Division runner-up. Should Ottawa end up winning the East, that berth that Brock took advantage goes poof and it's hard to see the CIS Final 8 wild-card berth going to an OUA team when there are great arguments out there for Cape Breton or Trinity Western.
  
  Saturday, Ottawa made a great third-quarter run that might dredge up the same rubric from last season about Carleton's depth. (Note: When we say this, it means people will ask, not that it is necessarily the case.)
• Gee-Gees: Chances are it will be a Toronto-Ottawa semi-final next weekend. Josh Gibson-Bascombe had 19 points and nine rebounds and the one solace for Ottawa is they kept within seven despite Josh Wright shooting just 5-for-18.

WOMEN'S HOOPS: Forbes Sparks Ottawa

• Gee-Gees: At first glance, point guard Allison Forbes (12 points, six assists, five rebounds) was the X factor in Ottawa's 56-49 OUA East semi-final win over Carleton.
  
  Forbes had a good game in Ottawa's loss in the Capital Hoops Classic, before encountering foul trouble. Hannah Sunley-Paisley also had a productive afternoon (12 rebounds, eight points), as Ottawa will face Toronto in the OUA East championship game on Wednesday.
  
  The Ravens' talisman, Tanya Perry, rolled her ankle 3:23 into the third quarter and never returned to the game. That was a kick in the pants for the Ravens.
  
  A tip of the cap is due to Andy Sparks and his coaching staff for turning around Ottawa quickly after late season's 3-19 nightmare. They're only just getting started, one would hope.
  
  Ottawa lost both regular-season games to Toronto, but the second game was by just six points. They're close, but would probably need an outlier performance (Kelly Weir, maybe?) to pull the upset and go to the Final 8, which is March 6-8 in Regina.
• Ravens: It's unclear what was Carleton's undoing; perhaps they overachieved and suffered a correction down the stretch.
  
  The upshot is Taffe Charles' team is losing its top two players, Ines Jelic in the post and Perry at guard (along with Julie Hoo, a very handy reserve), but they have a good system and the program's reputation has been enhanced. The bottom line, from a fan's point of view, is the team is in a much better place than it was 24 months ago. There seems to be more interest in the women's teams, when there wasn't not so long ago.
• It should have covered off earlier, but what would have been the best way to handle having a women's playoff game and men's regular-season game on the same day?
  
  A few commenters here weren't too happy with the three-hour gap between games, considering it a missed opportunity to promote.
  
  The U of O has a real time crunch with its facilities. There is also the matter of the OUA charges different admission prices for playoff games vis-à-vis the regular season, but some people would call the forest-for-the-trees stuff.
  
  Windsor had the same situation. For point of comparison, Windsor's men team played at 1 p.m., with the women's semi-final (each played Laurier) tipping off at 4 p.m., enough time to clear the gym, but not so much that it inconvenienced anyone who wanted to watch both games.
  
  Again, though, this really comes back to demand exceeding supply when it comes to gym time at Ottawa.
• Eastern Ontario stands to have some representation at the CIS Final 8 women's championship regardless of the Ottawa-Toronto result.
  
  Anneka Bakker, the Ashbury alumna, had a team-high 17 points Sunday to help the Alberta Pandas beat Saskatchewan in the decider of their division final and advance to the Canada West Final Four.
  
  Napanee's own Matteke Hutzler and her Simon Fraser Clan teammates host the tournament. Hutzler chipped in 12 points Saturday in SFU's series-clinching win over UBC.
  
• Ottawa native Bess Lennox, who already set the OUA single-season rebounding record, had another 13 boards in Western's playoff win over McMaster on Saturday. A 47% free-throw shooter, she also ended up going 7-of-7 at the free-throw line.

HOCKEY

• Ravens: More great headlines that cannot be written — "Self realization for Carleton."
  
  Andrew Self, the member of the Belleville Bulls' Memorial Cup team last season, scored the game-winners in each of Carleton's victories in their playoff series win over Concordia, including a 3-2 decision today. That was what they got him for, no doubt about it.
  
  It would be remiss, considering all the years that Carleton skipper Fred Parker coached in the CJHL, not to point out that Derek Wells, formerly of the Smith Falls Bears, provided great secondary scoring in series. He had two goals, which matched his output from 20 regular-season games.
  
  Carleton will face No. 5 Trois-Rivières in the East semi-final, likely starting Wednesday at Le Colisée, where they were waxed 10-1 two weeks ago. They found a way to steal a win in Concordia's barn.
• Gee-Gees: Ottawa can hold its heads up for hanging in with McGill for three games, although going down 2-1 in the decisive Game 3 today must hurt.
  
  Riley Whitlock was very good in the last two games for Ottawa, stopping 84 shots. Ottawa stands to lose three forwards — captain Martin Herard, centres Dan McDonald and Kevin Glode — along with five-year goalie Martin Bricault — off this season's team.