TORONTO — During a timeout huddle with four minutes to go in the Carleton Ravens’ Canadian university basketball victory Sunday, an animated coach Dave Smart was screaming in the face of his star guard Philip Scrubb.
The Ravens were leading by 41 points at the time.
There is no mercy in the Carleton Ravens, who thoroughly dismantled cross-town rival Ottawa Gee-Gees 93-46 to capture their fifth consecutive CIS title, and 11th in 13 years.
And moments after the final buzzer sounded on his college career, Scrubb said the Ravens’ relentless attitude is part of their M.O. It’s what makes them so good.
“That’s what makes (Smart) a great coach, he doesn’t take any possession off. If we’re not trying and we’re up 40, that kind of speaks to our character,” Scrubb said. “We want to focus on playing every possession like it’s a one-point game, so he just expects the best from us.”
Philip Scrubb poured in 28 points, while Thomas Scrubb added 20, capping spectacular college careers for the brothers from Richmond, B.C. They became just the fifth and sixth players in CIS history to win five CIS titles.
The late-game scene on Carleton’s bench, Smart said, is how he’s instilled fierceness in his star player.
“Phil and I since Day 1, we’ve been very close, and … we always talked about the fact that me without him would be horrible, and him without my competitiveness might be horrible too,” Smart said. “So since Day 1, he can’t give me his talent, but I can hopefully teach him how to be insanely competitive.
“That’s the one thing he needs, he needs to always want to step on people’s throats. It sounds bad but the bottom line is, he wants to play at the highest level, and if you look at the Chris Pauls, the Russell Westbrooks, the Kyle Lowrys of the world, they’re mean guys when they walk on the floor, Phil’s not a mean guy. He needs to become a crazy competitor.”
Philip Scrubb shot 10-for-16 in his CIS finale, dropping shots from all over the floor, including one spectacular circus shot he threw up while falling out of bounds. He also dished out 10 assists.
Thomas Scrubb grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds. Smart subbed the brothers out of the game with a minute left to a standing ovation.
“It was a little bit (emotional), yeah, just thinking this is my last game and this is the last time I’ll be on the court with these guys,” Philip said.
Moe Ismail scored 10 points to top the Gee-Gees, who played the fourth quarter without James Derouin, this season’s CIS coach of the year. Derouin picked up his second technical with just under a minute to play in the third and was ejected.
That’s the kind of day it was for Ottawa, who split their two games with Carleton in the regular season.
The game was played before an energized crowd of 3,917 fans at Ryerson’s Mattamy Athletic Centre that included noisy sections of students from each school. One red-clad Ravens supporter held aloft a sign that said, simply: Raven Domination.
It was bang on.
The Ravens raced out to a 15-10 lead after one quarter, then opened the second with a 19-4 run to go up 34-14. Carleton went into the dressing room at halftime leading 38-23.
The Ravens continued to build on their lead in the third, opening the frame with a 19-4 run to go up by 30. They took a 71-38 advantage into the fourth, and then kept their foot on Ottawa’s throat for the entire final quarter.
“They play hard right to the end, that’s their motto,” Derouin said of Carleton. “Whoever they’re playing doesn’t matter, the score doesn’t matter. I wasn’t out here so I didn’t see the last 12 minutes unfortunately. But no, that’s how they play and that’s how Dave coaches. And I expect nothing less when we play them.”
The Gee-Gees are known as strong shooters, but they struggled mightily against the Ravens’ smothering defence. A day after Ottawa had drilled 10 three-pointers in its semifinal versus Ryerson, the squad was just 4-for-25 from three-point range Sunday.
The Ravens held Ottawa’s star guard Johnny Berhanemeskel, the CIS player of the year, to just six points.
“Johnny is special, and we really made everything tough on him,” Smart said. “He is special, he has hurt us every game we’ve played for years, and Connor (Wood) did a great job (defending him), but as group we team defended way better.”
The Ravens topped the Gee-Gees 79-67 in last year’s final.
The host Ryerson Rams won the bronze medal early Sunday, defeating the Canada West champion Victoria Vikes 82-68.