A Kaliwood ending as Carleton Ravens repeat as Canadian champs
A wrapup post on the Unibball championships; the Ravens recapture the Bronze Baby, going top of a podium that includes two OUA East medal-earning teams on the men’s side.
There is no telling how big a void two-time Final 8 MVP Kali Porcnic leaving creates for the Carleton Ravens, who maintained the school mystique with their title defence at the U Sports women’s hoops championship. The Ravens, who surely used the budget for athletic tape, completed a western Canada whirlwind by beating the Saskatchewan Huskies 70-67 to keep the crown.
Know this much, at least as it looked to an appreciative aficionado who dips in for the postseason. A horror movie cleaned up on Oscar Night. There wasn’t that much blood on the floor, even if the last minute of play got held up when Ravens guard Tatyana Burke had to change out of a bloodied jersey. It was just the thought of how much nightmare fuel Carleton must impose on every coach who eats tape and hopes to find matchup problems they can count on exploiting. There is not one; they challenge everything, especially their do-it-all two-way guard Kyana-Jade Poulin, who only came off the court for under a minute on Sunday.
As someone who knows basketball toughness is not dictated by gender, height, or social background, Carleton is just so refreshing to watch. When the quintessential rubber met the figurative road on Sunday, they were glue. They evinced that dog in them, to borrow the Gen-Z phraseology. Why can’t every team play like that, he wondered from his couch.
That ferocity frames up their finesse. They just keep moving. They took the hacks and whacks in a way one hopes would get over with your daughter or niece, imparting that they can do it too. That’s not to say Saskatchewan lacked that. We are not that far out of the age where any girl who decides to play sports does so in defiance.
But Carleton won, so this is their story. I kept noticing the traces of injuries. Forward Jacqueline Urban jumped and landed for a game-most 13 rebounds with an injured right leg. Burke had her right hand bandaged. Porcnic got knocked over once after sliding into the lane to draw an offensive foul on a Huskie draw-and-kick. Everyone has seen that mini-movie; the manoeuvre isn’t exclusive to Carleton, but it’s one Dave Smart-coached teams perfected to blunt many an opponent’s run.
And so on. A camera close-up made it look like guard Dorcas Buisa had a large bruise on her left leg, but it didn’t bother the 24 percent three-point shooter when she hit a timely triple on her only long shot of the night. Saskatchewan left her open and paid, this time.
These Ravens don’t overwhelm with height, which is also a callback to the early years of that first dynasty on the men’s side. Few of coach Dani Sinclair’s rotational reliables are any taller than 5-foot-10. The 5-3 Porcnic, as the CBC broadcasters noted, is so short that when her teammates raised the Bronze Baby skyward, she couldn’t reach it. The broadcasters wondered about Carleton’s three-point arsenal, but it was just as good as Saskatchewan’s after two games there.
Porcnic, whom Sinclair noted didn’t have her greatest game, got it together for the big finish. The Ravens scored 11 of the final 15 points to run past the Huskies, who run Canada West, in a Canada West gym at the U of Alberta in Edmonton. Like the city Ottawa, and Ontario, are not resented enough already out there.
The boxscore shows that Saskatchewan star Carly Ahlstrom was limited to 13 points and five rebounds in her final game. Even with an Olympic coach, Lisa Thomaidis, on the Huskie sideline, Ahlstrom did not get to take another shot after her three gave Saskatchewan a four-point lead with 6:23 left. I’m not sure which defender gets that most credit for that, but it bears noting.
On the final Huskies possession, needing a three to tie, Saskatchewan had their final heave come from Logan Reider since her access to a pass was denied wholly. The shot was nowhere close.
Gage Grassick, a Huskies guard and the daughter of a former CFL player, had a game-most 30 points. But 28 of those were in the first 30 minutes. Her only bucket was a breakaway layup off a steal. That made the end a little more interesting, but that was all.
For those scoring at home, it is three titles for the women’s basketball Ravens in the last seven seasons of competition. As noted off the top, Porcnic is moving on (this is based off one of the on-court interviews; Poulin let it slip), but the never-rebuild, just-reload model is already patented inside the Ravens’ Nest with the men’s team and their 17 titles.
Carleton is so (expletive deleted) good. That about wraps it up. Same time next year in Vancouver? That used to get a shudder, but now it seems new again.
Getting Hip to Ndjock-Tadjore and Christie
Oftentimes, the best part of a bronze game is seeing the stars en herbe such as Ottawa’s Justin Ndjock-Tadjore and Dalhousie’s Malcolm Christie let the dragon breathe, as it were. A bronze game still has enough intensity, but with the natty out of reach, there’s a chance to evoke a verse of “Blow At High Dough” (Get it out, get it all out / Yeah stretch that thing / Make it last, make it last / Till the supper bell rings) for one last time in front of a crowd.
I doubt either listens to The Tragically Hip. I just haven’t referenced them here in a while.
Ndjock-Tadjore, a 6-foot-7 wing, hooped a career-most 26 points as Ottawa outran depleted Dalhousie over the final two quarters to get on the men’s Final 8 podium with Laval and Queen’s.
Ndjock-Tadjore wears the same No. 10 as early-2010s Ottawa star Warren Ward, and Ward generally worked from the wing. Obvious comparisons are obvious. He had a nasty putback dunk, and a sense for when the people needed to see the finishing move. By that, I mean he hit a three with 4:33 left to stretch Ottawa’s lead to 14.
Since Christie was the Atlantic conference most valuable player, most who follow this stuff know about him. He had a tournament-high 31 on Sunday, and since he tried just 15 shots, that’s a TSP of 103.3. He just needs someone to be his Pippen.
Bad blood, taking it for a ride
Pot-stirring duty requires tracking some fractiousness at the end of the men’s bronze-medal game. Ottawa coach James Derouin accepted a heave-ho for questioning whether a hard screen was necessary when the Gee-Gees and Tigers were playing out the string.
With 26.4 seconds left and a 10-point margin for the Gee-Gees, Tigers forward Jayden Parker set a clean-but-firm screen that dropped Gee-Gees guard Dragan Stajic to the floor in the Dal backcourt. The game was effectively over, so there is a point about being careful not to risk injury, along with counter-points of (a) teammates are supposed to call out screens and (b) well, there was still on the clock. I’m not taking a side; just tracking it.
It seemed to get resolved on the spot. Parker apologized to the Ottawa bench, the remaining time was played out, and everyone met on the floor. Nevertheless, someone has to mention it just for the possibility Derouin’s Gee-Gees and coach Rick Plato’s Tigers, whose lineups are laden with second- and third-years, could meet again in a Final 8. Bad blood stirring, eh, even though the coaches, as reported by CBC’s Greg Campbell, had a long and friendly chat before the game.
Still, anything that gets the staginess of wrestling into this stratum of sports cannot be dismissed out of hand. Maybe more people would watch.
It is Ottawa’s fifth medal in the last 11 seasons, and only guard Kevin Otoo is out of eligibility. Stajic is the only other starter who was in his fourth season. A bronze-medal showing and 27-6 season is all right, and the window should still be open for the Gee-Gees in 2025.
The unsolicited final analysis for Dalhousie (22-13 on the season) involves having the capacity to hold up through four quarters. They led Ottawa at the half on Sunday, and, of course, were ahead of Laval with 90 seconds left in the semifinal and never scored again. To be fair, a lot of teams, facing a pent-up host team with as much length and brawny width under the baskets as Laval, might have wilted much earlier than that.
Dal is a team to put a little hope toward. It hasn’t paid off in a natty, it might never, but the stats back up the legend of Rick Plato. In his 10 seasons, the Tigers have played .688 ball and kept it top-of-mind that Halifax and Nova Scotia are one of the cradles of the Canadian university game. The win rate is a fraction better than that of the legendary women’s team coach Dr. Carolyn Savoy, whose teams earned 524 wins across 32 seasons, but no other long-term coach at Dalhousie is credited with being above .500.
As a tourist in this sport, I make no guesses about whether players are coming back. The 2020-21 pandemic pause probably means a lot of players are older in adulting/schooling years than they are in eligibility years. For what might be worth, guard Samuel Maillet is the lone Tiger who is in his fourth year. D
Of note, Christie played at Fredericton High School, just like Elliot Thompson, a memorable pure shooter at Carleton in the early 2010s.
A quadfecta
Gold for the Carleton women; silver for the Queen’s men; bronze for the Ottawa men; and fourth for the Queen’s women, which would earn an antique bronze medal in some places. It feels like a complete set; the teams from the 613 finished 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Which, by the way, is the exact combination I have on my luggage.
Last words
Thank you to everyone who might have enjoyed this esoteric experimental niche sportswriting over the last 2½ weeks. I noticed more shares, a few pledges, and comments on Facebook. It fills in the time as I continue a job/next gig search, and also continue regaining a firm hand on management of the two mood disorders I have contended with since diagnosis in 2001.
Every read helps, even if it is a hate read.
That is more than enough for now. Please stay safe, and be kind — especially to yourself.