NICK FROST
CUP Sports Bureau Chief

HALIFAX (CUP) — The Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team have won their seventh CIS championship in team history, and as many in nine years, with an 82”“59 drubbing of the fifth-seeded Trinity Western Spartans on Sunday afternoon.

From the outset, Carleton was able to move the ball well and establish a long-range shooting game that quickly chipped away at the Spartans defence. In the first half, the Ravens dropped 10-of-20 three-balls, allowing them to open up a nine-point lead after the first quarter and then extend it to 18 at the half.

A major focus for the Spartans was containing CIS Player of the Year Tyson Hinz, not allowing him any room to maneuver in the paint — an area he has been dominant in since the start of the tournament.

Hinz appeared visibly frustrated in the first-half, but Carleton head coach Dave Smart was able to settle him down.

“I didn’t tell him anything special — it’s not rocket science,” Smart said. “Basically, I just told him to calm down. We do so many things through him, and he’s got so many different options on how he can be effective.”

While Trinity Western was able to neutralize Hinz at times, allowing him only 13 points and six rebounds all game, the Spartans fell right into the Ravens trap and other Carleton players were given space to create opportunities.

Among them were a pair of fourth-year guards, Elliot Thompson — who finished with a game-high 19 points — and Willy Manigat, who had clutch shots in his arsenal all game long, including a frantic jumper at the first-quarter buzzer to make it 26”“17.

The Spartans, on the other hand, had trouble containing Carleton’s precise ball movement, often leaving players like Thompson wide open for a shot from beyond the arc, as well as an inability to capitalize on rebounding — a category Trinity Western led 46”“34.

Fifth-year Spartans forward Jacob Doerksen attributed the team’s breakdown to a failure to match Carleton’s ability to hit open reads and turn boards into points.

“They passed the ball well off the dribble and I think we over-held sometimes,” Doerksen said. “They had open looks and they hit them, and we didn’t rebound as well as we needed to. They were getting the boards half the time which put the dagger [on us] throughout the game.”

For most of the Spartans players — save for Doerksen, who played at the national championship six years ago with the University of Victoria Vikes — this was their first time playing at a national tournament. Doerksen asserted, however, that big-game pressure did not get the better of them.

“I didn’t feel too much pressure — maybe other factors like fatigue, stuff like that,” Doerksen explained. “I don’t think there was pressure for the big game; we’ve got a veteran team, we’ve got guys who’ve played in the States and they’re used to big games with lots of pressure, lots of fans, so I don’t think that was too big of a deal.”

It seems Carleton has a knack for winning the big one in Halifax, as this championship marks the team’s sixth consecutive win in the Nova Scotia capital and the first since the tournament’s return to the Metro Centre after a three-year hiatus.

Smart didn’t necessarily have an explanation for the Ravens’ success in Halifax, but said that being here this week in particular allowed them to close themselves off from all other distractions and focus on the task at hand.

“We just play the games, and it’s a situation where we get to get holed up in the hotel and there’s really very few distractions,” Smart said. “It was a situation where we could hole up and just really dig in on what we wanted to do.”

Meanwhile for Trinity Western, despite missing out on a championship in the team’s first appearance at the Final 8, the mere fact that they were able to earn a spot in Halifax will allow the program to take great strides going forward.

“A couple years ago, they had losing records year after year, and they’ve just built the program up the last few years with Scott Allen,” Doerksen said. “To make the final, or even the tournament, was an accomplishment. But to make the final was awesome.”

While the immediate excitement inside the Halifax Metro Centre was palpable for Ravens fans and players alike, the team will take some time to celebrate, but according to Hinz, there’s still plenty of work to do to ensure this young team can celebrate many more titles in the future.

“It’s exciting, but we’ve got to get right back to work,” Hinz said. “We have a big target on our back next year. So, back to work, we’ve got to get better, we’ve got to get bigger and we’ve got to get stronger.”

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image: Nick Frost