Men's basketball Top 10: UBC sweeps Spartans; Ravens beat Ottawa without Doornekamp

  1. Carleton — Round 2 of the Canal War, which Carleton won tonight behind double-doubles from Kevin McCleery (27 points, 13 rebounds) and Stu Turnbull (22 & 11), might have been more about the mind games.

    Carleton won with Aaron Doornekamp sitting out with an injured foot, which lends itself to speculation the Ravens could rest him until the Ravens absolutely need him. Ottawa, which had a 24-14 third quarter to turn a halftime deficit into a three-point lead after three, can point to the fact Josh Wright (15 points, but on 5-of-18 shooting) was a touch off with his shooting.
  2. UBC — Swept the Pac-D final against Trinity Western, 83-80 and 80-64 (UBC finished Game 2 on a 19-4 run; it was still a one-possession game as late as the 3:40 mark).

    The T-Birds will face Brandon in the Canada West Final Four semi-final on Friday.

    The line to present player-of-the-year arguments for Chris Dyck forms to the left, but don't ignore fifth-year big man Bryson Kool, who had a huge fourth-quarter dunk among his 14 points Saturday and made a lot of great plays down the stretch in Game 1.

    Saturday, Kool's dunk with 3:36 left, off a Josh Whyte feed, helped nail it down for UBC. Dyck (44 points in the two games, including 23 in the second half of Game 1 on Friday) stuck the dagger with a 3-ball a minute later.

    Dyck also hit a game-tying shot, coming out of a timeout with 8:17 left, to choke off a Spartans rally. The better team won this series, but Trinity Western hung in despite the suspension to coach Scott Allen.
  3. Ottawa — Combo guard Josh Gibson-Bascombe had 19 points for Ottawa, who will likely get Toronto in the OUA East semi-final for the third straight season, this time at home after winning on the Varsity Blues floor last season.

    Frosh forward Warren "World" Ward played just nine minutes on Saturday, which is a noodle-scratcher (not in a negative or second-guessing way, just that he's got a lot of talent).

    Ottawa did put over on Carleton on the parquet Saturday. The women's hoops Gee-Gees, behind a 12-point, six-assist afternoon from point guard Allison Forbes, beat Carleton 56-49 in the OUA East semi-final Saturday. The team which went 3-19 in the OUA last season is one win from nationals; they'll play either Ryerson or Toronto next weekend.
  4. St. Francis Xavier — A funny thing happened to X on its way clinching the AUS regular-season title: They were upset 80-79 at home Sunday by Dalhousie, led by the Northern connection, as Simon Farine scored 28 points and his one-time high school teammate Yannick Walcott chipped in 11. Josh Beattie, a second-year guard and Halifax-area player, added 17, including 3-of-4 on threes.

    X had 30 points from Tyler Richards and 28 from Christian Upshaw.

    It was the biggest win Dal's had in a while and it puts the seedings for the AUS Final 6 into a flux. The Cape Breton-St. FX game Thursday in Antigonish (their first meeting since the Garry Gallimore incident) is now for first place.

    The Dal-SMU game on Saturday at The Tower will be for the 3 and 4 seed; winner gets Acadia in the quarter-final, loser gets UPEI, neither team is a humpty.

    Friday, Richards scored 27 points in a 100-75 win over Acadia, the fourth time X has hit the century mark in Atlantic play (along with just about as many games in the 95-99 range).
  5. Western — Point guard Matt Curtis dished off for 11 assists and Keenan Jeppesen had 22 points in a 74-71 win Saturday over Brock, which gave the Mustangs a 19-3 record and knocked Brock out of the playoffs.
  6. Calgary — Swept Alberta, 91-85 and 82-78, and will likely be the No. 2 seed at the Canada West final four. The Dinos had a balanced scoring effort Saturday, led by Ross Bekkering's 18 points.

    There will be time to say it in further detail later,, but thanks again to Alberta coach Don Horwood for his wonderful service to the university game.

    The Bekkering boys combined for 55 points Friday. Ross Bekeering had 29 points and 13 rebounds, shooting 12-of-14, while Henry Bekkering added 26, including three triples.
  7. Concordia — The Stingers swept McGill (94-89 in overtime at home, 83-73 on the road), with Evens Laroche putting up 19 in the return game as Con U had six men in double figures.

    Both matchups in the Q this week are essentially dress rehearsals for the division semi-finals. The Redmen, who got 54 points from Moustafa El Zanaty over the two games, played Concordia tough. The Q has four solid teams, for sure.

    The other series pits Laval vs. UQAM. The Rouge et Or beat the Citadins by near-identical scores, 81-77 and 80-76. Laval shot an effective 60% in UQAM's gym Friday, with wing Étienne Labrecque scoring 24 on 4-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc.

  8. Windsor — The Lancers had the power of 3 working in their season finale, an 81-65 win over Laurier, as big man Greg Surmacz (the OUA West player of the year, according to the BMoC), matchup problem Isaac Kuon and point guard Corey Boswell combined for 52 points, with none scoring more than 20.
  9. Trinity Western — The Spartans' showing vs. UBC probably buttresses their argument for a Final 8 wild-card berth; they're hands-down the choice to be the fourth team in the Canada West conference tournament next weekened with the 'Birds, Dinos and Regina-Brandon winner.

    Jacob Doerksen gutted out a 16-point, eight-rebound effort on Saturday. Somehow, Trinity Western, which got 22% shooting from all players not named Doerksen, kept in the hunt for three-plus quarters.

    Fifth-year forward Jamie Vaughan (23 and 11 in 27 minutes) had a big night in Game 1, when Doerksen scored just nine points.

  10. Cape Breton — Swept Memorial (80-73 and 85-68) to clinch second place in the Atlantic.
    The Capers have one game left, a four-pointer vs. St. FX next Thursday, but the X-Men will have top spot wrapped up if they win on Sunday.

    The Capers' Central Ontario contigent came through big. Scott Jaspers-Fayer, a Guelph native, had 18 points and 12 rebounds on Saturday. Lasario Burrows, a 6-foot-6 left-hander who previously played at Georgian College in Barrie, had 18 points and nine rebounds in just 21 minutes Friday.
Beyond the Top 10:
  • Vancouver native Eric Holm (18 points in 24 minutes) helped vault the Brandon Bobcats into a Can West semi-final vs. his hometown UBC Thunderbirds. Holm and veteran Dany Charlery (23 points) led Brandon to a 78-76 win over Regina Saturday in the last Great Plains division game ever (it's the end of an era).

    Five of seven Brandon-Regina games this season went down to the final possession, as Leader-Post sportswriter Tim Switzer noted while covering off the Cougars' perspective at Campus Chatter.

    Brandon guard Tarik Tokar made 6-of-8 threes, scoring 20 points in the Bobcats' series-tying 89-70 win over Regina on Saturday. The night before, he was 0-for-8 and the Cougars won in in overtime.

    Tokar also hit the sick beyond NBA length, buzzer-beating three two weeks which ultimately decided home-court advantage for this series. Regina was that close.
  • Guelph, which was 3-8 in the OUA in January, will be hosting a home playoff game next week. Duncan Milne and Dan McCarthy each had 15 points in the 73-54 win over Lakehead Saturday which wrapped up fourth spot in the OUA West. The Gryphons are half-dangerous, even if that is not represented in the all-star selections.

    The Gryphons will host Waterloo in 4 vs. 5 quarter-final. McMaster hosts Laurier in the 3-6 game next week.

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7 comments:

  1. Aaron Doornekamp's injury is a lot more than just a "sore foot". His injury was diagnosed as a stress fracture which he has been playing with for some time already.
    He could have played last night if it was a do or die situation, but because the Ravens have an automatic berth in the Final anyway, why put him at further risk?
    Rest is the only cure for this type of injury and having a couple weeks off will do Aaron's foot a lot of good, hopefully.
    The loss for Ottawa U must be a bit discouraging I would think.
    Any idea of overcoming a 15 point first game deficit to claim first place was pretty unrealistic, but at least there appeared to be a real shot at winning this game.
    Ottawa appeared to have Carleton on the run in the 3rd quarter, outscoring the Ravens 24-14 to erase a 7 point half time deficit and lead by three.
    But Carleton, going for all but 14 minutes with its starting five, shut down Ottawa 21-11 in the last quarter to
    win by 7.
    Really, not having Doornekamp in the Raven lineup should be more concern for the OUA West runner-up than Carleton.
    If an Aaron-less Carleton team gets upset before the Wilson Cup final, there will be no third place play-in game.
    But judging from last night's result, there appears to be little to worry about.

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  2. About the Ottawa U women's team...last year's team were poised to have a great season until Carlos Bobby Brown pissed it away.
    Moriah Trowell and three other veterans were so fed up with Brown's head games they just up and quit.
    The result was entirely predictable.
    Brown inherited a very good team from Angie McLeod but did little to build on her success.
    Andy Sparks was a proven winner at the high school level and is great handling female players.
    Carleton had their best year ever but the sad part was it could of and should been even better.
    The Lady Ravens frittered away several winnable games against inferior teams like Queen's and York and that wound up costing them 2nd place.
    And losing Tanya Perry early in the 2nd half yesterday spelled doom for them.
    Bottom line though, both of these programs are headed in the right direction for the immediate and long term future and that's good news for capital area fans.

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  3. Finally someone acknowledged that Q has a very strong league. I wouldn't be surprise if there is McGill-UQAM Q final. For Doornekamp, playing 2-3 weeks after stress fracture is still a risk.

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  4. Hey - regarding the Q, I just read a bunch of b-ball posts (good work, BTW) and one poster pointed out McGill has beaten both Ottawa (in Ottawa, no less) and Western.

    McGill went only 5-11 in the Q, so I thinkg the Q is much stronger league than people give it credit for. And UQAM and Stingers have very athletic teams (team speed, qucikness, leaping ability.)

    Regards,
    Tony

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  5. Rob has passed along the final RPI, pending the Brandon-Regina result:

    The Top 10, as a bloc, synch up with the coaches' poll, save for UVic, whose season ended thanks to one- and two-point losses to Trinity Western.

    St. FX is 9th in RPI and fourth in the poll.

    MEN (not counting the Regina-Brandon playoff game on Sunday)
    1. Carleton (29-2), .601
    2. UBC (28-2), .596
    3. Ottawa (29-4), .586
    4. Western (22-6), .567
    5. Concordia (17-4), .565
    6. Calgary (23-6), .555
    7. Windsor (19-8), .553
    8. Victoria (20-9), .552
    9. StFX (24-6), .546
    10. Trinity Western (20-9), .545
    10. Cape Breton (18-5), .545

    12. Toronto (18-10), .538
    13. Simon Fraser (15-11), .533
    14. McMaster (16-10), .531
    15. Dalhousie (19-10), .517
    16. Brandon (17-10), .511
    17. Ryerson (14-13), .509
    17. Alberta (17-15), .509
    19. McGill (15-14), .507
    20. Waterloo (15-14), .506

    21. Brock (12-14), .501
    22. Regina (15-13), .499
    23. Saint Mary's (16-12), .496
    24. UQAM (12-13), .494
    25. Guelph (12-14), .491
    26. UPEI (12-14), .487
    27. Laval (13-14), .486
    28. UFV (8-18), .483
    29. Saskatchewan (12-18), .479
    30. Bishop's (8-19), .478
    30. Laurier (11-19), .478

    32. Lakehead (10-20), .475
    33. Queen's (10-19), .469
    34. York (8-20), .458
    35. Acadia (7-19), .455
    36. Lethbridge (6-22), .444
    37. Thompson Rivers (3-21), .439
    38. Winnipeg (7-23), .437
    39. Manitoba (5-19), .431
    40. UNB (4-23), .430
    41. Laurentian (5-21), .428
    42. Memorial (4-22), .426
    43. RMC (0-30), .399

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  6. Actually Carleton is 30-1 with a 9-0 non conference record.
    Their lone CIS was to Windsor.

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  7. Indeed they are 30-1. Someone entered the 76-69 Ottawa score as a 76-79 Ottawa win. (...What? Oh. I'm being told that was me.)

    Carleton and the rest of the top ten, through Sunday's games, are here.

    ReplyDelete