Phil Scrubb says Carleton Ravens must 'dig in' to complete drive for five

All Phil Scrubb wanted to talk about was the Carleton Ravens' defence, or lack thereof, the final 20 minutes against Victoria.

Not putting a team away once it's down at CIS Final 8 is un-Carleton-like. Dollar-store sports psychologists could make a lot out of the Victoria Vikes hanging around — were the Ravens thinking about another all-Ontario championship Sunday against a tough opponent? — before Carleton won 83-74 in the early semifinal at Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto.

“I thought we didn't play well in the second half,” said Scrubb, who had a near triple-double with 29 points, 13 assists and eight rebounds. “If we play like that on Sunday we're likely going to lose. We have a lot of stuff to work on – each individual guy knows what he has to do.

“I think we started playing a little more individual defence instead of team defence,” Scrubb said of a second half where Victoria, paced by point guard Marcus Tibbs' 27 points and nine points and 15 off the bench from Grant Sitton (all on threes), clawed back after trailing by as much as 26. “We can't leave the guy covering the ball out on an island instead of focusing on your own guy ... We were just telling each other to dig in, keep focused on winning the game and not get down. Again, when they came at us, we kind of backed down for key stretches of the game.”

Consider that the sound of Carleton, which will play for its fifth consecutive national title and a clean sweep during the Scrubb era, stoking some fear to fuel itself for the championship game (Sportsnet 360/Sportsnet ONE, 3 p.m. ET/12 noon PT). The easy way out, as narrative choices go, would be to focus on another eye-popping statline from the 22-year-old Scrubb, who got his 29 on just 18 field-goal attempts. In truth, the game was really about Carleton plucking 19 offensive rebounds against a team with 6-foot-10 Chris McLaughlin at the 5-spot and engaging everyone offensively. Lithe forward Jean-Emmanuel Pierre-Charles, whom Carleton seldom calls plays for, matched McLaughlin's total with 14 points, while fifth-year guard Victor Raso added 12 on his specialty three-pointers. Victoria frequently doubled Thomas Scrubb, who had only seven points but a game-high 12 rebounds.

”It's hard to replicate their intensity,” Victoria coach Craig Beaucamp said. “You don't see that every night, They do a great job of getting the first punch. They were just quicker to the ball than us in the first 5-6 minutes of the game [while getting out to a 12-point lead after the first quarter]. “We got our feet under us, but you're not going to make many runs against that team.”

"They got two guys that create the penetration, Phil and Tommy,” added Beaucamp, whose team will play for the bronze medal on Sunday. “They get a lot of guys involved but it's because of the two guys that are the creators on that team,whether it's a ball screeen, post entry, or dribble penetration.”

The win sets up the third consecutive all-Ontario final. Carleton beat Ottawa in 2014 and Lakehead in '13.

”I don't think it's been a fluke that it has gone this way,” Carleton coach Dave Smart said. “Ontario teams have been the best teams for most of the year and it's held true here.”

The final will be the last game together for the Scrubbs, who are vying to be the fifth and sixth men in Canadian university basketball history to win five national titles. Having already scored 60 points in 62 minutes over two games at the nationals, Phil Scrubb looks as dialled in as at any point during the most heralded career in CIS history. The Richmond, B.C., native scored or set up 7-of-8 Ravens baskets in the second quarter and tallied eight in a row in the first 2 1/2 minutes of the third.

”You just go into the game and focus on what's in the moment,” Scrubb said. “After the game tomorrow I am going to be emotional about it but I'm not going to think about it.”

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.