The Lakehead Thunderwolves, who surprised the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds to reach the CIS men’s basketball championship final, were no match for No. 1.
Not even close.
The Carleton Ravens raced out to an 11-0 lead Sunday, backed by a raucous hometown crowd at Ottawa’s Scotiabank Place, and never looked back, cruising to a record ninth title and running their current streak to three in a row with the landslide 92-42 win.
And what a record-setting win it was. The 50-point margin of victory easily crushed the previous championship final mark of 24, originally set in 1964 by Windsor and matched seven years later by Acadia. The Wolves also put up the fewest points of any finalist in CIS history, their 42 points falling six short of the previous low of 48.
“If Carleton shoots well and rebounds well, you can’t beat them,” said Lakehead coach Scott Morrison. “If we had gotten more effort on the glass, maybe we would have had a shot, but we also shot poorly. A lot of things didn’t go our way today and to beat Carleton, you’ve got to be perfect.”
Morrison said the lopsided defeat is no reason for his players to hang their heads.
“I couldn’t be prouder,” he said. “I didn’t expect to be here today for most of the season. We didn’t lose the game today, we made history today.”
Losing, especially this badly, is never an easy pill to swallow, said fifth-year pivot Yoosrie Salhia, one of six graduating Thunderwolves whose career came to an end Sunday.
But, he added, they've put Lakehead University on the basketball map.
"If you think about from when we came in here to where we are now, it's a huge difference. We've made huge accomplishments as a group and made history in the school. It was a pleasure to play with these guys. I made the best decision to come to Lakehead. I never would change that," Salhia said.
"We just couldn't rebound. That was the difference ... I would have liked to have gone out a different way, that's for sure."
Joseph Jones, the hero of Saturday's semifinal win, was named a tournament all-star, but said the loss was a tough one to take.
"We definitely gave it our all. I can say that. We didn't leave anything in the tank. I'm proud of these guys. I'm proud to have been part of this team," said Jones, who has also used up his CIS eligibility.
"If I had five more years to do it all over again, I would."
The Ravens outscored LU 22-4 in the paint in the first half, and when they weren't beating the Wolves inside, the likes of tournament MVP Thomas Scrubb, who had 12 at the half and finished with 17, and Clinton Springer-Willaims were beating Lakehead at their own game, firing dart from beyond the arc.
Lakehead's outside game, save for a pair of Matt Schmidt treys in the opening quarter, just wouldn't drop. Sharpshooter Joe Hart was just 1-7 from three-point land, and as a whole hit just 4-21.
Salhia started the Wolves off on the right note in the second half, but a pair of 7-0 runs pushed the Carleton lead to 33. Even with their reserves on the court, the Ravens kept pulling away.
"It was an exciting game, we knew they were going to be tough coming in," said Carelton forward Phillip Scrubb. "Obviously it was exciting to win three straight, but we were kind of focused on winning just one because this is the first time this team has been together as a group. We kind of lost our first game (this season) and we bounced back from that.
"We just try to play hard for 40 minutes, no matter what the score, if we get up or we get down, we try to respect our oppoponent and play as hard as we can."
Dwayne Harvey led LU with eight points.
