After coming so close (some say a renegade official’s call late in the game on Adika Peter-McNeilly) from an appearance in the CIS championship game on their home court last season, Ryerson Rams finally will have the host’s advantage in a Wilson Cup Final 4 and there is every reason to think that this may be the year that the Rams raise their first-ever OUA championship banner above Coca-Cola Court at the Mattamy Athletic Center in Toronto. #1 seeded Rams face Windsor tomorrow night in a semi-final game with a spot at this season’s Final 8 at stake. Carleton/Ottawa continue their battle of Ottawa in the other semi.
Lancers handed Ryerson one of their 2 OUA regular season losses in late November at Windsor 81-67 as 6’4″ Alex Campbell had 25 points and 14 rebounds (8 for 21 shooting). Windsor generally had their way on the offensive glass that evening, grabbing 15 “o” boards and out-rebounding Ryerson 51-45. Rams played that game without 6’8″ Adam Voll who was out with an ankle injury and have since welcomed back 6’8″ Kadeem Green, fortifying their paint area play at both ends.
As well, the game at Windsor was the first action of the OUA regular season for 6’5″ Aaron Best who had missed the first 4 games with an ankle. Best came off the bench for 12 points and 6 rebounds but turned it over 6 times, part of 23 Ryerson turnovers on that night. More importantly, Rams trailed by only 1 with 5 minutes remaining and proceed to turn it over 5 times in the final moments, allowing Lancers to pull away. One other impactful factor was 3 Rams fouling out of that game including 6’4″ Ammanuel Diressa (who had only 6 points and 6 boards), 6’5″ Filip Vujadinovic and 6’6″ Juwan Grannum, severely negating any size advantage Ryerson had. Final foul count was 27-21 for Ryerson with Windsor shooting 30 free throws vs. 19 for the Rams in what conjures up distinct memories of what generally happened back in the good old days of OUA East teams playing games in OUA West gyms.
Lancers that evening got one of their first views of what could be with 6’6″ Tyler Persaud as the athletic, hard working post area player came off the bench for 10 points and 7 rebounds and has since established himself as the effort-guy on the glass for the Lancers and one of the more important pieces in what is now an 11-game Windsor winning streak (and counting). Persaud was especially effective last Saturday in the Lancers win at McMaster with 12 points and 11 boards (including 4 on the offensive glass) in 38 minutes including a couple of key plays.
Expect Ryerson to try to make Campbell into a passer with Best, Peter-McNeilly and Mukama, who is Rye’s highest-potential defender, all likely to take their turns trying to slow down the Windsor catalyst. Ryerson is also likely to put pressure on 5’11” Mike Rocca and 6’3″ Isaiah Osborne in the Windsor back-court. Expect Rye to put their transition game to an early test – one of the keys last Saturday was Windsor’s ability to control tempo and limit Marauder run-outs. Expect this to be much more of a challenge against the deeper and better-perimeter shooting team in Ryerson.
A third win in a row by the uOttawa Gee-Gees over Carleton would be almost unprecedented (probably have to go back to the early 90’s when present-day Carleton women’s coach Taffe Charles was a one-man offensive show for the Ravens). But it is very possible, especially given the manner in which uOttawa dominated the Ravens on a neutral floor at Canadian Tire Place in the Capital Hoops Classic.
Carleton tried to start their offense and play off 6’5″ Guillaume Boucard in the low post however not only did the Gee-Gees not bite on doubling down, Boucard struggled to finish even when left alone to operate one-on-one. The CTC game was arguably the first time since the Gee-Gees/Ravens rivalry hit fever pitches that observers during the game rarely if ever felt that Carleton would come back to win. In the few instances that the Ravens did mount rallies, 6’1″ Mike L’Africain and 6’6″ Matt Plunkett – with at least 3 huge dagger threes in the second half – made sure that the momentum would not swing. Note also that Ottawa won comfortably despite not having 6’3″ Caleb Agada in the lineup with his ankle injury.
In retrospect, that game at CTC probably signified the low point in the Ravens season; they have since won 7 consecutive games including last weekend’s dominating win over Brock in which Ravens looked as locked-in as at any point in recent memory. 6’3″ Connor Wood had the best game of his Ravens career and 6’2″ Kaza Keene continues to get comfortable with his ball-screen and transition reads, micromanaged as he might be 🙂 . Carleton did struggle a bit on the glass but that was as complete a game as the Ravens played all season long.
Ottawa on the other hand struggled with Queen’s as the Gaels generally stayed home on shooters (which likely hurt them on the final game-winning play) as L’Africain was left to create and finish while Agada struggled from the floor. Recall Agada was arguably the top player in the floor in the first Carleton game at the Raven’s Nest, an affair which Carleton led late but went dry, not scoring in the final 4 minutes as Agada was unstoppable off the dribble and L’Africain made a big shot late for the final margin of victory. Expect another high-intensity classic beginning at 5 PM ET on Friday night.
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