Men's basketball falls to Carleton in OUA final
By Michal Tellos
News Editor
March 17, 2010
 Defending champions the Carleton Ravens showed their number one ranking against the Lancers men’s basketball team last Saturday in the OUA final, winning easily, 71-52.
Carleton, the home team, went ahead quickly and didn’t look back. They had a 22-point first quarter, holding the Lancers to just 11.
The second quarter saw the Lancers outscore the Ravens, but it was not enough, as Windsor came out weak in the third quarter, effectively losing the game.
“I really didn't have many answers and although we cut the half-time lead we came out shockingly flat in the third quarter and that was that. No one played well enough to mention and I certainly didn't coach well enough to discuss any further,” said head coach Chris Oliver in a post-game report.
The Lancers were then held to just eight points in the final frame, giving Carleton their third straight OUA championship, seeding them first going into nationals.
All down the stretch, defensive play has been the cornerstone of Windsor’s success, with Oliver consistently emphasizing it. This game was unsuccessful at either end of the court.
“The best description of the Carleton game was that we got dominated on the boards and beat by a better team for sure on that day. We came out seemingly uptight, defended poorly and just didn't execute much of our game plan. And worse, when we got down we went into ‘hero mode’ which basically means our players started forcing their shot rather than working together for the best shot,” said Oliver.
Carleton out-rebounded Windsor by a huge 47-17 margin, 36 of which came at the defensive end. Their shooting percentage was also notably better than Windsor’s, as they went 47.2 per cent from the field, compared to Windsor’s 32.2.
Even the free-throw percentage was a season-low for the Lancers, who only managed to make 43.8 per cent of their shots from the charity stripe.
Isaac Kuon, the team's leading scorer throughout the season, only scored 14 points in the effort, while the team's leading rebounder, Nigel Johnson-Tyghter only had five boards.
The Lancers will nevertheless move on to nationals this week, which will also take place in Ottawa.
Oliver is at least hoping that his team got all the poor play out of their system.
“The positives are that it’s way better to have that game Saturday than this week at Nationals so hopefully it was a mirage from a team that has been playing great basketball down the stretch,” he said.
His squad will now go on to play the Saskatchewan Huskies in the quarterfinal of the tournament. Windsor is seeded fourth going into it, while the Huskies are seeded fifth. Despite the seeding, it’s not going to be easy.
“Saskatchewan will be a tough matchup as you would expect at nationals. They are second in the country in scoring and feature the leading scorer in the country in Showron Glover,” said Oliver.
The Lancers played the Huskies last season in a pre-season game, narrowly beating them. This year, the team earned the Canada west playoff title, for their first time in history.
Games of the tournament will be broadcast on TSN. The Lancers can be seen in action at 6 p.m. this Friday.
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