TORONTO - “We had a plan coming into the week, like, 'hey we're going to get two wins and we're going to be number one on Monday.'”
That was head coach Patrick Tatham following his team's 79-61 victory over the Ravens, 16 years to the day of the program's last win against Carleton.
BOXSCORE
Manny Diressa led the way for the Rams, breaking out of his two game shooting slump to the tune of 21 points, including 5/7 from three point range and knocking down four of his five free throws.
“I had more looks, and just sort of got more comfortable and was able to shoot myself out of the slump,” said Diressa.
It was a disastrous start for the Rams as they found themselves down 14-2 early in the first following a spree of missed shots leading to easy looks for Kaza Kajami-Keane and Guillaume Boucard.
Looking for an answer Tatham went to the bench bringing in JV Mukama and Filip Vujadinovic who ratcheted up the defensive energy and forced some Raven turnovers to settle things down.
“JV has so much length, it's almost unheard of in the OUA. He's a secret weapon off the bench and then we can bring in the toughness with Fil, we're just gonna claw back into the game and it worked out great,” said Tatham on the boost of the bench.
A Diressa three ball to end the quarter cut the deficit to six, and the second quarter began with the Ravens up 19-13.
Vujadinovic proceeded to hit consecutive threes to open up the second quarter and from there the Rams caught fire from beyond the arc going 4/5 in the period, and outscoring the Ravens 19-10 going into the half.
The Rams kept the pressure on in the third, limiting the Ravens to just 11 points in the quarter and completely taking their stars out of the game. Kajami-Keane finished the night 3/13 from the field for just seven points, while Boucard didn't fair any better going 2/10 from the floor and 4/8 from the free throw line for just 9 points.
Diressa and Aaron Best shouldered the scoring load in the quarter, taking turns knocking down off balance threes over scrambling Raven defenders. Best finished the night with 12 points and two rebounds.
The Rams entered the fourth quarter with a 54-40 lead, and kept the gas pedal down to finish the game off.
Adika Peter-McNeilly only scored three points, but was huge down the stretch, quarterbacking the offence and making plays on the defensive end that led to easy looks for his teammates.
“I knew my shot wasn't going in, but I still knew they were gonna focus on me on offence so I knew if I could create shots and open looks for my teammates we were gonna be good,” said Peter-McNeilly on controlling the game without scoring.
Three straight Roshane Roberts layups off of turnovers as well as threes from Peter-McNeilly and Diressa were the daggers that sealed the game for Ryerson, as Tatham was able to empty the bench in the final two minutes to the delight of the standing room only crowd and cruise to the 79-61 final.
On Saturday night the Rams will have a chance to knock off the Ottawa Gee-Gees and rise to the No. 1 team in Canada for the first time in history. Tipoff is set for 8:00 p.m. but fans should get there early if they want a seat at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
