Ottawa Gee-Gees have method to their madcap style, making them able to challenge Carleton Ravens

Parts of the Saskatchewan-Ottawa boxscore — which ended with the top-seeded Gee-Gees winning 94-73 behind 24 points from Terry Thomas — looked like they were taken together from other games.

Canadian university basketball teams generally do not sink 14 threes in a CIS Final 8 game at Canadian Tire Center, a notoriously unforgiving shooting environment with what Gee-Gees point guard Mike L'Africain called "tough rims." Nor does any team worth a tournament ticket go 4-for-16 from the free-throw line. Nor does the coach of a team that won by more than 20 surmise that his charges "were just a little bit sluggish" like Ottawa's James Derouin did. Yet that all fit together on Friday when Ottawa did its thing while dispatching the wild-card Huskies. (Ottawa had a tougher time on its home floor with Ryerson, which many believe should have been the wild card, two weeks ago in the OUA East semifinal; but that's neither here nor there.)

That sets up semifinal Saturday, with No. 3 Alberta and No. 2 Carleton hooking up in the early game (6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT, Sportsnet 360). Ottawa will face No. 4 Victoria and 6-foot-10 centre Chris McLaughlin in an 8 p.m. tilt between the country's highest-scoring team (96.2 points per game) and its stingiest (60.2 against).

The Gee-Gees and Huskies were even at 50 late in the third quarter, honest. Then Thomas, who had nine rebounds and five steals, scored seven in a row during an 11-0 Ottawa outburst. The hopeful Huskies, with star guard Stephon Lamar harried to no end (5-for-18 shooting with seven turnovers en route to a hollow 15 points and eight assists), came back briefly. Then an 11-2 quarter-bridging run highlighted by forward Vikas Gill's buzzer three settled the issue. Ottawa's starters came out on a high note: a L'Africain-to-Thomas alley-oop capped off the statement win in front of a crowd of 3,545.

"We found our groove and that separated us," said Thomas, the East Preston, N.S., native. "We're a great three-point shooting team, probably one of the best in the country and once it starts going, it helps our whole game. It limits their transition opportunities.

"We just take what we've learned from Carleton and apply it to every team."

In a nutshell, that is what makes Ottawa stand out regardless of how the next days unfold. It borrows principles from the CIS lodestar across town and pours it into a high-tempo game. Carleton has what Dave Smart calls "attack mode," but Ottawa pushes the ball like few else. The Gee-Gees took 76 shots in a 40-minute game and only had nine turnovers.

"We're going-going-going, but we know how we're going, the different reads made at fast speeds," said L'Africain, who had 10 points with a 7-to-2 assist-to-turnover ratio. "We've done it so many times. Tonight we probably had our 15th lob between Terry and I and he only played half the season [while sitting out until Nov. 29 after transferring from St. Francis Xavier]. That all goes back to the summer. We spent so many hours in the gym learning how each of us plays."

"Our defence turns into our offence. When you get a play like that on offence you want to get back on defence as fast as you can."

'At times it looks like we're not running anything'

If the Carleton-Ottawa final that the tournament organizers want comes to be, no doubt it might be played up as the run-and-gun Gee-Gees vs. the regimented Ravens. That might do a disservice to what Derouin has drilled into Ottawa, turning a small corner of The City That Fun Forgot into Lob City. The fourth-year coach believes that the Gee-Gees' flash heightens their focus on defence. Who wouldn't reach for the carrot that is knowing each stop means a chance to hoist another three or work a tic-tac-toe fast break? Their structure is their speed.

"It's tough as a coach, at times it looks like we're not running anything," Derouin said. "But over a year you learn the strengths and weaknesses of your team. I've been with some of those guys 3-4 years and they play at their best when we're loose and running and having fun and doing some things. You could see it today. Once we got loose in transition and got some adrenaline from that, that woke us up even on the defensive end."

The Gee-Gees also got 20 points from OUA Wilson Cup game-saver Johnny Berhanemeskel, who was 8-for-19 but perked up in the final two quarters. One year removed from a year where it fell one win short of meeting Carleton on championship Sunday, losing 83-78 to Lakehead in the semifinal before going on to claim bronze, Ottawa is deeper and tougher.

Combo forward Caleb Agada (nine points, eight rebounds) and reserve guard Mehdi Tihani, a one-time Carleton redshirt, helped contain Lamar, the all-Canadian. Ottawa also weathered having centre Gabriel Gonthier-Dubue (11 points on 5-of-6 shooting) for just 20 minutes due to foul trouble.

'Lot of yawning'

Provided it can pinpoints what caused that slow start, Ottawa should be a slight favourite over Victoria. The Vikes beat McGill 63-54 on the strength of Terrell Evans' 19-point, 11-rebound double-double. McLaughlin hooped 16 and nabbed seven boards.

"I did see a sense of being a little down on our team, we definitely can't do that tomorrow," Thomas said.

Perhaps that all traced back to Ottawa being in the unaccustomed position of being the No. 1 seed. That is a motif for the rest of the tournament. The 2 and 3 seeds have less sit-and-stew time before the semifinal, and also get a couple more hours' rest before the final. Ottawa held a morning shootaround, then came back for an 8 p.m. tipoff.

"It was a long day today," Derouin said. "I think the fatigue factor came in a bit. You could see it in their bodies and their faces. It's more just a game I'm glad we got over with. We'll need to be better against Victoria. Hopefully a good night's rest and we'll feel better tomorrow.

"There was probably a little anxiety last night. I've been to nationals as a player, you don't sleep a lot the night before the first game. There was a lot of yawning. Felt like we were just a little bit sluggish."

Styles make fights, and styles can't deviate much more than Ottawa's and Victoria's. The Gee-Gees' playoff run already includes wins over Ryerson and McMaster, who also allowed fewer than 70 per game in regular-season play.

"We don't let anybody dictate the pace," L'Africain said. "Teams get caught. We sucker them into it."

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.