Tyson Hinz is long gone.
The Scrubb brothers are off seeking their basketball fame and fortune elsewhere. Heck, even their coach, who authored 11 titles in 13 seasons, has taken a one-year sabbatical.
It really doesn’t matter.
The juggernaut that is the Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team rolled into Thunder Bay on Saturday night and laid waste to the Lakehead Thunderwolves, pummeling their gracious hosts 93-62 at the C.J. Sanders Field House.
The Ravens, the No. 2 team in the nation, made getting points in the paint virtually impossible, forcing the Wolves to the perimeter for most of the contest. When they had the ball, they rarely missed, hitting 14 of 19 shots in the first quarter en route to a 31-18 lead.
And yet the young Thunderwolves have little to hang their heads at.
Sure, they lost by 31 points and were out-rebounded 36-23. But the Ravens made more turnovers, and other than a disastrous third quarter when they only allowed the Wolves to score six points, Lakehead managed to put points on the board.
Games like that can only make the Thunderwolves better, said guard Henry Tan, who led all players with 21 points.
“I think every day we’ve got to be mentally prepared because these teams, they don’t take one possession off. With these teams we’ve got to be defending as a team, rebounding as a team and on the offensive end, we’ve got to move the ball,” Tan said.
“That’s the main thing we took from this weekend.”
The Vaughn, Ont. native said the plan was not to shoot the long ball, though their first seven buckets came from beyond the arc.
“We wanted to get an inside game, but they really closed out hard on us and when we (went) inside they were doubling and forcing the rotation and it was tough for us to get inside,” Tan said.
It was rookie Quincy Johnson’s first taste of Carleton basketball and said there were plenty of lessons to be learned.
“You can just learn a lot about the way they move the ball and the way they communicate on defence,” Johnson said. “We’re still a young team and we’ve got a lot to learn.”
Though it was the most decisive loss of the season for coach Manny Furtado’s 1-3 squad, he couldn’t find much fault with his players.
“That’s a lesson on how to move the ball,” said Furtado, a former assistant with the Ravens under coach Dave Smart. “You can just tell both teams (this weekend) how they move the ball with ease and knowing when they want to pass the ball they pass it with confidence.
"And the next thing is shooting it. When you can shoot the ball that well, it opens up so much for you. Teams have to close out, they have to play defence. You open up attack lanes. Hopefully these guys can learn from this weekend moving forward on what it’s going to take.”
All five Ravens starters finished in double figures, despite playing about half the game. They were led by Kaza Kajanmi-Keane’s 16-point effort.
Brandon Persad and Alex Robichaud each hit double figures for Lakehead, with 11 and 10 points respectively.
The Wolves, who led 3-0 on Taner Parrington’s opening three-pointer, take on Nipissing and Laurentian next weekend at home.
