Ravens surge past Santa Barbara to close cross-border battle series

By Dan Plouffe

The Ravens Nest was just about as loud as it’s ever been as an overflow frosh crowd cheered on the Carleton Ravens to a 71-61 victory over the University of California Santa Barbara Gauchos in an exhibition men’s basketball match last night.

Carleton thrived off the energy in the building in the early-going to build a 21-7 advantage and then held off a charge by the Gauchos that saw their southern opponents take the lead in the second half.

“It was definitely a battle,” said Ottawa native Tyson Hinz, who scored 17 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the victory. “That team’s very good. They didn’t let us run some of the stuff we wanted to, but that was our last game (against NCAA teams), so it’s good to have a challenge.”

Second-year guard Philip Scrubb went 6-for-11 from three-point range to post a game-high 32 points and lead the Ravens to a victory over their ninth and final NCAA exhibition game of the pre-season series at Carleton.

Senior guard Cole Hobin noted that beating highly-regarded NCAA teams is a source of pride for the defending Canadian Interuniversity Sport national champions.

“It’s known as a challenge,” explained Hobin, who was held off the scoresheet but pulled down five rebounds. “It’s nice to be able to go in there, work hard, execute a plan and come out ahead of them – winning games and frustrating them is a lot of fun.”

The Ravens finished their crossborder battle schedule with a 5-4 record, including four straight victories.

Carleton lost its first match of the series 66-64 against La Salle University back on Aug. 9, then beat Illinois State University 90-80 before three losing three in a row by no greater than 10 points to University of Central Florida, University of Akron and State University of New York at Albany.

The Ravens finished with a pair of wins over St. Louis University and then one more against Niagara University prior to last night’s match.

Carleton will host the House-Laughton Tournament Oct. 14-16 before opening its Ontario University Athletics season on the road Nov. 11 at McMaster.