Alberta Golden Bears advance at CIS Final 8; can they challenge Carleton on Semifinal Saturday?

Back in the day of Dean Smith there was the de facto Anybody but Carolina banner. It would be only understandable if ABC stood for Anybody But Carleton in the realm of Canadian university hoops.

Feelings toward the indomitable Ravens, in the unfamiliar position of being seeded No. 2 at the CIS Final 8, are not quite like that — "it's all about respect; they're at the pinnacle that we're all trying to reach," is how long-time Concordia Stingers skipper John Dore put it on behalf of the coaching fraternity. This time around, the question revolves more around the possibility of any team spoiling a potential all-Ottawa showdown on a championship Sunday at the Canadian Tire Centre. That meant No. 3 seed Alberta, which was paced by fifth-year star Jordan Baker's 17-point, nine-rebound, five-assist effort in its 72-62 win over Saint Mary's, was under more of a microscope than anyone else during Friday's quarter-finals. Carleton pulled away from McMaster to win 82-64, with Phil Scrubb (21 points and five assists) and Thomas Scrubb (20 points, 14 rebounds) counting for half the Ravens' total.

The Golden Bears didn't go ahead for good until the third quarter, when Baker, their Swiss army knife of an all-Canadian forward, started driving and dishing. An eight-minute drought also did in the No. 8 Huskies, setting up one-half of an Alberta-Carleton semifinal matchup. It will be a rematch of the 2012 final. Four players on each side were around for that one.

"It's good — we owe them for two years ago," said Baker, who played for Carleton coach Dave Smart (and with Ravens star Phil Scrubb) for Canada at the 2011 Pan-Am Games. "We're going to have to play a lot better if we're going to be able to knock off the next team in the semifinals. It'll be a steeper challenge."

The Golden Bears, 32-3 on the season, made a task of taking out undersized Saint Mary's, which at times threw out a quintet with no one above 6-foot-6. The Huskies' pressure hounded the Golden Bears, who also got 11 points from fifth-year guard Joel Friesen and 10 from guard Youssef Ouahrig, into 20 turnovers. That would not do against the typical Ontario power.

"We got to do a far better job of taking care of the basketball," Baker said. "We had far too many turnovers tonight. Against Carleton, we're not going to be to get away with that.

"We scored a little bit easier in the second half and then we did a great job in the second half, great help-side defence, forcing them into more difficult shots and cleaning the glass.

Granted, that turnover statline owed somewhat to Saint Mary's playing desperate. The Huskies, who were led by Marquis Clayton with 13 points, hung it for a smidgen more than two quarters before wearing down. Brian Rouse, who a catalyst at each end early, missed the third quarter after being poked in the eye on a drive to the hoop in the penultimate minute of the second quarter. His absence cost Saint Mary's dearly.

"We feel we faced the most athletic team here today, that should help us get ready for tomorrow," said Alberta coach Barnaby Craddock, who reached the national semifinals in 2012 with Fraser Valley and was runner-up in '07 with Brandon, with each squad bowing out to you-know-who.

Alberta poses a challenge to Carleton on the interior, with the fifth-year trio of 6-foot-7, 225-pound Baker, centre Rob Dewar (6-11, 230) and glue-guy forward Todd Bergen-Henengouwen. Carleton counts on 6-6 Tyson Hinz and 6-7 Kevin Churchill inside and allowed McMaster to rebound almost as many of its misses (17 of 42) and as the Ravens did (13 of 32).

"They're a lot bigger than us, like height and strength and maybe even more athletic," Thomas Scrubb said of Alberta. "We just got to fight hard for loose balls and not let them bully us on the glass. Get them to their weakness."

'Just in the right place'

Size always matters on the boards, but it matters less when Carleton is involved. One pivotal possesion in the third quarter vs. McMaster illustrated as much. The Marauders, in their first tournament appearance in eight years, were hanging around down 51-48 when Carleton's reedy seventh man, 6-7 Jean-Emmanuel Pierre-Charles, knifed in between two Marauders to nab an offensive rebound. The extra possession turned into a Thomas Scrubb layup that started a 12-2 okay-we're-done-here run to close out the quarter.

"You don't want to put it down to one point — that's ridiculous, but it was big," said Marauders coach Amos Connolly, whose team got 14 points from Leon Alexander and 10 from Aaron Redpath. "But we knew we were in for a tough third quarter, Carleton in the third quarter is legendary tough. I felt like the plan was working alright. It was 51-48 and I thought we had the ball and then it starts to go. And when it starts to go with them it goes fast. They know how to beat a team that's gambling, really well. So many teams, if they're within an arms-length, they're trying to close that gap. They did a real good job of hurting you. That's the story. That's been their MO for a long time.

"They have the talent and Dave [Smart] is as good as they come in North America, you know what I mean, he's as good as a coach as you'll find. When you put that together that's a lethal combination.

"Those little miscues and balls that end up in their hands, I don't think that's luck," Connolly added. "Those guys are just in the right place, they've been there so many times, they got a nose for the ball, they're athletic enough, they're tall enough and all of a sudden it's in their hands."

Baker's A-to-Z arsenal and ease with reading the floor is a X-factor for Alberta, which has a deep lineup with an athletic backcourt with Ouahrig, Canada West rookie of the year Mamadou Gueye and newcomer Czar Robotham, a transfer for NCAA Division II Academy of the Arts. The Baker-Scrubb-Smart connection is a subplot for Saturday's early semifinal (5:30 p.m., Sportsnet One),

"Baker's got a lot better since then, he's going to be tough to stop," Phil Scrubb said. "It's hard to prepare for him but we have to trust our fundamentals and team defence and get it done."

Carleton has done that better than anyone for a decade. That's why the rest of the field tries to not to let jealousy take over. Like Dore put it, "Drew Love [Carleton's athletic director who's now at McGill] started it and Jennifer Brenning continued it. They demanded excellence and expect nothing less. We need more schools to think that way."

Occasionally, Carleton gets challenged but invariably, its games will, to borrow from Connolly, just start to go. That happened to McMaster. Alberta believes it's got the goods to avoid it Saturday.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet. Please address any questions, comments or concerns to btnblog@yahoo.ca.