On the 10-year anniversary of their first Canadian Interuniversity Sport national men鈥檚 basketball title, the Carleton Ravens showed why they鈥檙e heavy favourites to win another, easily handling the University of Victoria Vikes in the quarter-finals Friday night at the 2013 Final 8 in Ottawa.
The Ravens鈥� No. 1 defence in the country was on full display at Scotiabank Place and the Vikes had no answer, scoring just 19 points in the opening half en route to a 83-46 loss.
The Ravens move on to tonight鈥檚 semifinal against the Acadia Axemen, while UVic drops down to the consolation side and will face their arch-rival UBC Thunderbirds at 11 a.m. Pacific time today. The sa国际传媒 West-champion T-Birds were upset 89-80 by Acadia.
The Vikes started out strong and led 12-7 five minutes in, but the two-time defending champion Ravens, who have won their eight CIS banners in the last 10 years, turned it up from there and led 42-19 at the half.
The second quarter was the killer for the Vikes as Michael Acheampong鈥檚 three-pointer late were the only points of the quarter for UVic as the Ravens outscored the Vikes 23-3 in the frame.
鈥淲e really struggled to get the ball up the court, especially in the second quarter,鈥� Vikes head coach Craig Beaucamp said in a statement. 鈥淎nd we had a really difficult time getting into offence and that was basically the tale of the tape.
鈥淭he second quarter was really the undoing and after that it was just window dressing.鈥�
Ravens head coach Dave Smart agreed.
鈥淰ictoria didn鈥檛 make any shots in the second quarter,鈥� Smart said in a statement. 鈥淚f they had, the outcome of the game may have been different.鈥�
The Ravens came into the tournament stacked with players such as two-time CIS player-of-the-year Philip Scrubb and all-sa国际传媒 Tyson Hinz who have plenty of national tournament experience. Having not been to the CIS Final 8 since 2006, not one UVic player had ever experienced the national tournament before. But Beaucamp refused to use lack of experience as an excuse.
鈥淲e were just disappointed with how we did things,鈥� Beaucamp said. 鈥淲e know that we can do well and we knew we were going to face some things that were going to be difficult to stop and some players who were difficult to stop, but we just didn鈥檛 help ourselves.鈥�
The Ravens smothered the Vikes鈥� top players. Centre Chris McLaughlin, who led the Vikes in playoff scoring coming into the national tournament averaging 18.3 points per game, didn鈥檛 score a single point in the first half and finished with just four.
Regular-season leading scorer Terrell Evans was held to just eight points. Senior Acheampong, playing his last games for the Vikes, led UVic with 13 points. Normally a strong shooting team, the Vikes were just 2-for-29 from three-point range.
鈥淲e are more disappointed with how we played tonight then that we lost,鈥� Beaucamp said.
Clinton Springer-Williams led the Ravens with 15 points, while Scrubb chipped in 13.
Now the Vikes turn their attention to a familiar foe in UBC as they try to get to the fifth-place game.
鈥淸Today] we just want to play better basketball,鈥� Beaucamp added. 鈥淧lay more like the way we know we can play.鈥�
The other semifinal today (2:30 p.m.) will feature the Lakehead Thunderwolves and Ottawa Gee-Gees. Lakehead beat Cape Breton 74-61 in their quarter-final, while Ottawa downed the McGill Redmen 82-70. Both semifinals can be seen live on The Score. The final goes Sunday at 12:30 p.m. Pacific, also live on The Score.
