MBB | Voyageurs Begin Road Trip to Ottawa With Defeat to Ravens

The Laurentian Voyageurs men's basketball team would go back on the road this weekend with their first stop coming Friday night facing off against a Carleton Ravens team that had defeated them back in Sudbury last weekend.

The Ravens come into this game ranked as the number 8 team in U SPORTS while Laurentian sits with a solid 7-8 record sitting in fourth place in the OUA East division. 

The game would get underway with both teams matching each other stride for stride in the first five minutes. From there though the Ravens would end the first quarter on a 12-2 run giving themselves a 23-13 lead going into the second quarter.

The second quarter was headlined by the Ravens shooting efficiency. Laurentian put up 15 points on 36% shooting in the quarter but their opponents led by 10 second quarter points from Xavier Spencer shot 10-14 from the field as a team in the second putting up another 23 points and going into halftime with a substantial 18 point lead. 

The second half would end up being more of a closer contest with the Voyageurs playing stronger defense and scoring at a higher pace in the second half. However the Ravens continued to apply the pressure all throughout the second half extending their lead to 25 at the end of the third before finishing off the night with an 83-55 victory over the Voyageurs.

Laurentian's top performances Friday night came from Shawn Bartelemy, Nginyu Ngala and Ismael Konate who all pitched in with double digit point performances while Daniel Mukandila put up 8 points along with 8 rebounds.

Laurentian will end the weekend Saturday with a game against the Ottawa GeeGees with tip-off set for 5pm in the nation's capital.

- Andrew Lemieux