Down and out, Lions crumble to the Ravens

Victoria Alarcon
Sports & Health Editor
There comes a time when every team faces their biggest challenge, the one that is going to make players push themselves to the very last minute and work for every shot.
It becomes an even bigger challenge when some of your team is injured and you’ve lost one of your biggest players on offence, and you need to find some way to fill the gap. But at the end of the day it’s up to the players to decide whether they will step up to the challenge despite these setbacks or run from it and let these obstacles take control.

And, unfortunately, for the Lions on Feb. 5, the men’s basketball team decided to run fast, and ultimately let their obstacles and the intimidation of facing the number one team in the country win them over, making the tough 111-71 against the Carleton Ravens even harder to accept.
“Tonight was just brutal,” said third-year player Kenneth Buchanan, who finished with a total of eight points at the end of the game. “We didn’t execute well and we basically beat ourselves. Our defence was terrible, we didn’t stop them a lot. Our rotations weren’t there the whole night, and even though we were playing at home and we had a bit of an advantage, it wasn’t a good night.”
With Dejan Kravic out of the game, and players like David Tyndale playing with a sore arm, the team needed to rely on every player to do their best. But what happened instead was a lot of missed shots and silly turnovers that cost the York Lions the game.
“It’s when we stop sharing the ball, we get hurt,” said head coach Tom Oliveri after the match. “Basketball is a team game and you take any team sport, from football to soccer to basketball, it’s a team sport: you need to play with your teammates, you need to get people involved, you need to share the ball, and teams are best when they do that.”
Teamwork could have easily come in handy in the second quarter as the Lions were down 47-21 and 6’3 Jordon Campbell was trying to push his way through Carleton’s defence, but instead was shut out by his rival as the team made sure to block every route possible to score.
Carleton had the game down pat right from the beginning of the game, as players like Tyson Hinz and Philip Scrubb made quick work on getting past their opponents and finding that open space to make important three-pointers. The team made sure to rebound every shot that didn’t make it to the basket and it paid off as the Ravens recorded 34 rebounds in the night compared to the Lions’ 19.
“We got the tempo the way we wanted it, played a high possession game especially for the first three quarters, and by doing that forced their main guys to play hard at both ends of the floor. It’s hard when you’re expected to play huge minutes to defend and make the right decisions on offence,” said Carleton head coach Dave Smart.
With the playoffs only three games away and York now sitting in fifth place in the East division, it’s becoming a tight race to see who will make it to the playoffs and who won’t. For York, the only way they can secure a good playoff spot is if the team wins the next three games.
“There’s a number of scenarios and I’ve been around long enough to know that you’re only focus is on your next game,” said Oliveri. “Even though we lost two games this weekend, we won more games than last year and we’re hoping to take the next three and move into the playoffs.”