Basketball: Top 10 tracker; Carleton, Mac, Calgary suffer upsets; Capers, X-Men on upswing

This week showed the depth in men's basketball. The Nos. 1, 3, and 4, 5 and 6 teams each lost; Carleton and Calgary were each beaten by a team which lost its other game by a decisive margin.

No. 3 McMaster and No. 5 Dalhousie have to wear the hair shirt after losing twice.

There were some other tense cross-over games in the OUA Friday, between Josh Gibson-Bascombe and Ottawa outlasting McMaster and Windsor winning a one-pointer on Toronto's floor. Saturday was more sedate.
  1. Carleton Ravens (503 points, 41 first-place votes) — Beat No. 3 McMaster 83-74 on Saturday on the strength of Kevin McCleery's 30 points and 16 from Tyson Hinz (who shot 4-of-5 from the field in the loss at Lakehead).

    As far as the Lakehead game goes, Carleton had a paltry-by-its-standard 25 rebounds, which means Yoosrie Salhia was probably huge). Three Ravens, Mike Kenny, Cole Hobin and Kyle Smendziuk, battled through foul trouble and a 25-point night from Elliot Thompson was not enough.

    It is best the frame this more in terms of how far Lakehead, led by Greg Carter and Yoosrie Salhia, has come since a one-win OUA campaign a few years ago. Carleton is still awfully good and you shouldn't get out the shovels for them, especially with that close a margin and that far a trip (remember, Toronto also lost at Lakehead earlier). Nevertheless, talk about a thriller.

  2. UBC Thunderbirds (463, one first-place vote) — Easy wins at Manitoba (93-75) and Winnipeg (89-54). Kyle Watson hit nine shots in a row vs. the Bisons. They probably get some time at No. 1.

  3. McMaster Marauders (400) — Losing twice at home means a fall from the Top 5. McMaster probably played better losing by nine to Carleton than losing by two on a last-second OT shot to Ottawa. It was a close game until Ryan Christie got a tech right after his fifth foul, giving Carleton's Mike Kenny four free throws. Keenan Jeppeson again carried Mac offensively, while Cam Michaud had a good weekend (17 points, eight rebounds vs. Carleton and some big shots vs. Ottawa).

    A truth is not a lot went right early for the Marauders in their 65-63 home overtime loss to Ottawa. They emptied their tanks in the third and fourth quarters trying to come back.

    The Gee-Gees' talisman, Josh Gibson-Bascombe, hit a runner with 4.5 seconds left in OT for the win for Ottawa, which scored eight of the last 10 points (including a Nemanja Baletic three that cut the margin to 61-60) in the extra session. Ottawa, which had an 18-point, six-assist night from JGB (Warren Ward had 14 points and five dimes) also led most of regulation, but Jeppeson (33 points, 10 rebounds, five steals) brought the Marauders back.

  4. Calgary Dinos (379) — Lost 86-82 at No. 10 Simon Fraser on Saturday to finish .500 for the week. They did not have the irreplaceable Ross Bekkering (but the Clan were missing Matt Kuzminski) for the second game due to injury. That hurt, especially in rebounding.

    Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson (18 points, five steals) was paramount in the 10-point road win (87-77) over Trinity Western.
  5. Dalhousie Tigers (314) — Lost to the AUS top two teams, St. FX (85-72) and Cape Breton (84-62). Simon Farine (27 points) had to shoot a lot in the X game and the Tigers were minus-11 in rebounding margin. It was rough for the Tigers.
  6. U of T Varsity Blues (296) — The canned response to their 84-68 win over Western (30 points from Nick Snow on 11-of-18 shooting) is that you never want to catch a Mike Katz team the game after it loses at home. U of T shot an effective 56%. Friday, U of T lost 61-60 at home to Windsor, which forced the Blues into 17 turnovers and just 32% effective shooting.
  7. St. Francis Xavier X-Men (230) — Likely looking forward to being Top 5 after a second straight win over Dalhousie (85-72). Christian Upshaw averaged 26.5 points, nine assists for the weekend, while the former Algonquin College star Charlie Spurr had 24 points vs. Dal, all on three-pointers. He should never take a two again.

    X beat Acadia 89-72 on Friday.
  8. Cape Breton Capers (208) — Should move up after a big week (113-75 over Acadia on Saturday). Jimmy Dorsey had 18 points in an 84-62 win over No. 5 Dalhousie on Friday.
  9. Windsor Lancers (174) — Just a good, solid weekend with wins at Ryerson (76-68) and Toronto (61-60). Josh Collins had the unseen handle in the 61-60 win at Toronto, dishing out a game-high six assists in 24 minutes against a veteran Varsity Blues backcourt.
  10. Simon Fraser Clan (87) — Beat Calgary 86-82 without Matt Kuzminski; Kevin Shaw (20 points), Eric Burrell (14 and 14) and Kevin Pribilsky (15 points in 19 minutes off the bench) stepped up big-time. Lost 87-73 in OT to Lethbridge on Friday night.
Among the also receiving votes teams:
  • Lakehead (85) — Mike Aylward has already covered off the GGODs' gigantic win over Carleton. But a 37-point loss to Ottawa the next night?
  • Saskatchewan (63) — Had a 40-point swing in their second game at Alberta, losing 71-70 on a buzzer-beater after a 98-59 romp.
  • Trinity Western (30) — Beat Lethbridge (80-68) after losing to Calgary.
  • Ottawa (5) — They don't have much of a voting base to build on, but beating the No. 3 team in its own gym and taking out the team who beat the No. 1 team should strike a good chord. Warren Ward had 27 points in the 93-56 rout of Lakehead.


Remember, check the @CUBDL Twitter for updated scores plus cishoops.ca will hook you up better than Rajon Rondo.
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7 comments:

  1. Dont forget the Windsor match up against Toronto and Lakehead is also 6-0 getting the first crack at Carleton before Mac gets their shot on Saturday.

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  2. Duly noted.

    Not to be sarcastic, but when it says "road trip to No. 11 Lakehead" and "also have a ranked team coming in, No. 9 Windsor on Friday," that should suggest we're aware of these matchups. No. 1 vs. No. 3 obviously is more paramount than 6 vs. 9 and 1 vs. 11.

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  3. On behalf of a team that is 7-2 in CIS play despite playing the toughest schedule in the country, I ask: where's the love for Acadia? Not even one tenth-place vote! More deserving than Lakehead (oops, wrong post) and Laval, I'd say.

    (And thus ends yet another comment complaining that "the consensus Top 10 does not match my Top 10." The difference is this one is only 4% serious.)

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  4. You know a lot of people raised a big stink when Carleton squeaked by Guelph.
    Some were trumpeting that Carleton was undeserving of #1, that they got it as a "courtesy".
    Funny, I didn't hear a peep out of these folk when UBC were life and death to beat TRU,
    of all teams in their first road game of the year.
    Of course, in the rematch the following night, the Birds took down TRU easily as expected.
    Point is, both Carleton and UBC played crappy in those games.
    But because Carleton doesn't get a chance for a rematch against the Gryphons that
    75-74 score somehow lingers in some minds.
    I figure if Carleton played a second game against Guelph the following night they would have
    stomped them good, which was exactly what Ottawa U did to them.
    Here's a question I'd like to pose to OUA East coaches.
    When making that Lakehead-McMaster road trip who would you rather play first,irrespective of the two teams abilities?

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  5. DAl hasn't beaten or played a top ten team .SFX hasn't beaten a top ten team yet. Dal and SFX are not true top 10 teams. (They haven't played CB yet} Weak conference with no quality wins in preseason . Ottawa beat two top teams this week-end.( They have played five games against top 10 teams winning two, losing two in OT and one in regulation . Their two loses in league play (one in OT ranked team) were by a total of five points . Ottawa's 10 and 5 record is much better than DAl and SFX and a few other ranked teams. They deserve a top 10 ranking .

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  6. ditto for Ottawa deserving of a top ten ranking!

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  7. a top ten ranking is gained in lost over the course of several weeks. Even with two big wins this weekend ottawa couldnt jump into the middle of the top ten. Also with MAC loosing 2 games this weekend, to #1 & OU they are not going to fall out of the top ten.
    I do agree that ottawa is a good team and will be one of only a couple teams the rest of the year to give Carleton a challenge in the weaker OUA eastern conference.
    I predict that Ottawa will soon be in the top ten pushing fellow oua east team Toronto out of the top ten.

    ReplyDelete