U of T’s Athletic Centre played host to the top-ranked basketball team in the country as the Varsity Blues fell 98–64 to the Carleton Ravens, Saturday. Although Toronto was down as little as seven points in the second half, the Blues were unable to maintain pace with the undefeated Ravens.
The Blues trailed 43–28 at half time but opened the third quarter loaded with energy. Fourth-year point guard Arun Kumar knocked down a pair of three-pointers as U of T went on an 8–0 run to bring the game to within seven points. Fifth-year forward Drazen Glisic also came up with a huge block in defense to re-energize the home crowd.
BERNARDA GOSPIC/THE VARSITY
Unfortunately for the Blues, fifth-year center Andrew Wasik, who only played eight minutes in the first half due to foul trouble, picked up his fourth foul immediately afterwards and sat out the rest of the quarter. Carleton took full advantage, and stretched their lead to 20 points by the end of the third quarter to lead 67–47.
The onslaught continued in the final frame, as Carleton opened up a lead of as many as 36 points. The Ravens shot 50 per cent from the field and were a sizzling 57 per cent from three-point range. “They’re just a machine,” said Toronto forward Alex Hill. “They don’t make mistakes. If they get an open shot, it’s going in.”
It seemed like even the referees were showing no mercy towards the Blues, as they allowed Carleton to inbound the ball and subsequently knock down a three-pointer while U of T only had four players on the court.
“You play every game to win,” said Blues assistant coach Mike De Giorgio. “We tried to give our guys the best chance to do that with a defensive scheme that would take [the Ravens] out of their offense and force them to make plays, which they did.”
But there were a few bright spots for the Blues. Hill scored a season-high 30 points on 10–21 shooting, while Kumar hit four three-pointers in the second half and tallied 16 points in total.
The most important thing for De Giorgio, however, was the effort the Blues put in on the floor.
“We competed, although we could have done better offensively at times and we made a couple of mistakes defensively,” he noted. “The biggest thing moving forward is to be able to compete, and it was good to see that we could do that against a team like Carleton.”
Wasik fouled out of the game with just under seven minutes to play and received a technical foul as he exhibited his frustration. The Blues centre ended his night having played only 15 minutes and picking up two points and three rebounds.
“When Wasik is on the floor most of the offense is run through the post, so we’ll throw it inside and that’s how we get our open shots — because they will collapse on Wasik and he’ll pitch it back out,” said Hill. “So when Wasik was out, we had to play more of a motion game and get our open shots that way.”
De Giorgio also recognized that having Wasik benched changed their game plan offensively. “We have to do a better job of mixing things up when he’s out of the game, but hopefully we will be able to stay in the game next time.”
The loss drops the Blues’ record to 5–7 and into a three-way tie for third place with Ryerson and Laurentian. The Blues host Ryerson on January 18 and play Laurentian and York on the road on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
De Giorgio is cautiously optimistic. “If we can win our next three games, we put ourselves in a good position going up against Queen’s and RMC at home, so these next three games are going to be very important to us.”
