McGill v. Carleton

October 15, 2010

Carleton 81 – McGill 60

by Devin Gray

Top Performers

Carleton: Elliot Thompson

Pts: 20, Reb: 6, Ast: 1, Stl: 1, Min: 27

McGill: Oliver Bouchard

Pts: 13, Reb: 2, Ast: 0, Stl: 1, Min: 33

 

Carleton off to solid start

 

Ottawa, ON–Fans of the host team Carleton Ravens began to stream in to fill the ‘Red Zone’ as the Windsor- Victoria game came to a close. The atmosphere in the gym took a noticeable change with the shift of crowds. The vuvuzelas nearly drown out the thumping overture of Juicy blaring through the sound system. Carleton emerges in their home white jerseys and the McGill Redmen sport their red duds to the chagrin of the Carleton ‘Red Zone,’ and reminiscent of Vince’s romp into the ACC a couple years back.

At the tip-off Carleton gained possession and control of the game and never looked back from there. Carleton centre Aaron Chapman opened the scoring, but it was guard Elliot Thompson who put the game out of reach early with an unconscious shooting display hitting three three-pointers in the first couple of minutes to erupt out of the gate like a rival Gee-Gee with a commanding 15 – 1 lead.

Carleton looks to be winning decisively by controlling the speed of the game and playing pressure defense to get the Redmen off their game early and force them into difficult shots. The Ravens really work as a cohesive unit and that all starts at the core with the coach Dave Smart who has compiled a 260- 27 winning record in eleven years as Carleton’s head coach. With six national championships in the past seven years it isn’t hard to see that Coach Smart really doesn’t like to lose.

McGill’s Simon Bibeau scores twice, once from behind the arc, to regain some ground, but Carleton has already settled in and is comfortable playing with the big lead in front of the home crowd. They slip into a zone defense but never lose a step as Thompson rises again to hit a contested bucket with the foul right before the half.

In the second half the teams open by trading buckets from Carleton’s Dan Penner and Tyson Hinz and McGill’s Oliver Bouchard and Michael White. After some good ball movement and several passes Thompson again found himself open for three and gets fouled for the four-point play. On the defensive side, McGill’s undersized backcourt can’t effectively drive through a clogged lane and trail by 25 at the half, 48 – 23.

In the second half McGill looked a little more organized and the referees were getting their money’s worth from their whistles. Thompson hit another three and was 5 for 5 from distance until missing one at the end of the game. Carleton never seems to have difficulty scoring with their strong defense leading to transition opportunities. After the third the lead was 70-39, but Coach Smart never took a minute off coaching and fighting and exclaiming “If that’s a foul, that’s crazy!” The team’s intensity matches the coaches and it will be difficult to overcome through the rest of the tournament as the Ravens wrap up their first win and look forward to facing fellow first-day victors Windsor, while McGill hopes to regroup before facing a hungry Victoria team on Saturday.