Eight months ago the Carleton Ravens crushed the Lakehead Thunderwolves in record-setting fashion to win a third straight CIS men's basketball season.
Nothing's really changed.
The No. 1 Ravens, making their biennial visit to the Thunderdome Friday night, didn't get them by 50 this time around. But it didn't matter. The only real question was whether the three-time defending champions would cross the century mark. They didn't. But that didn't really matter, either.
The heavily favoured Ravens got 15 points from all-Canadian Phillip Scrubb and even on cruise control in the fourth raced to a 92-50 win.
That's eight points more than LU scored in settling for silver last spring, but not nearly enough to dethrone what might be the best team in Canadian university hoops history.
"I think we did a better job the first time," said Lakehead coach Matt Erdman, referring to a 79-61 pre-season loss to the Ravens, a team that came within five points of upsetting NCAA giant Syracuse in non-conference play.
"I think we played a little bit tentative tonight at times. We didn't rebound the ball the way we needed to rebound the ball and we gave up way too many open looks to the outside."
Carleton, led by a pair of three-pointers from would-be LU recruit Victor Raso in the first half, and two more from Connor Wood, burst out of the gate, but not before the Wolves took a brief 6-4 lead 3:19 into the contest, courtesy of an Anthony McIntosh hoop. The lead was shortlived, as high as nine points before Alex Robichaud drained a buzzer-beating three-pointer to close the gap to six, 24-18 after 10 minutes.
At that point Erdman liked much of what he saw from his side, making its home-court debut.
"Yeah, we had some good moments early and then we went away from some of those good things that happened, getting in the paint, stopping to get a pass, trying to get the ball inside. I think we tried, but I think maybe we tried a little bit too hard at times," Erdman said.
By halftime, the game was out of reach.
The Ravens went on a 7-0 run to start the second quarter, then closed it out in typical fashion. Phillip Scrubb hit a three, the dynamic Clinton Springer-Williams rocked the rim with a high-flying dunk (breaking coach Dave Smart's no-dunk policy), then Thomas Scrubb dropped another three and Carleton led 47-25 heading into the third.
Within minutes the lead hit 30 in the third and continued to grow.
Smart, who's team has won nine of the past 11 CIS crowns, said it wasn't as easy as the scoreboard might suggest.
"They play hard," he said. "They get after it. They gave us a lot of problems up in Ottawa at our tournament. In the first half, it's a little deciving. We were up 22, but we were also 8-for-11 from the three-point line. We didn't exactly outplay them. They played us pretty much even."
LU rookie guard Henry Tan, who had nine points at the half, finished with 11. McIntosh, the only other Wolves player to hit double digits, wound up with 10. Tyson Hinz had 13 for Carleton, who shot 35-for-65 from the floor. LU only managed to hit 19 of 50 shots.
Lakehead hosts No. 3 Ottawa on Saturday night. Tip-off is 8 p.m.
