RECAP: #7 Ottawa defeats #6 Carleton in Bytown Battle

The Gee-Gees men's basketball team closed the first half of their season with an emphatic 71-62 win at Carleton on Wednesday night. In the best collegiate hoops rivalry in Canada, Ottawa defeated Carleton for the third consecutive time in the past two seasons and capped the semester off on a six-game winning streak.

Ottawa fell behind in the early stages of the game as the Ravens sprung to a lead that grew to as high as 12 in the early second quarter. Behind the red-hot shooting performance of Ankit Choudhary, the Gee-Gees battled back to take the lead in the final seconds of the second quarter, outscoring Carleton 24-15 in the frame.

The Gee-Gees forced 15 turnovers that translated into 22 points and outscored the Ravens 26-16 in the paint. During the peak of the Gee-Gees run, they built their lead as high as 14 mid-way through the third quarter.

Choudhary was the leading scorer for Ottawa, finishing with 28 points, 18 of which came on six three-pointers. Jacques-Mélaine Guemeta had 13 points, Dragan Stajic had 12 points, six rebounds, and five steals. Justin Ndjock-Tadjore rounded out Gee-Gees in double figures with 10 points and four rebounds in the win.

The win now moves Ottawa into second place in the OUA East with a 10-2 record at the break.

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING:

"[The win] was great, I mean obviously you know the history and everything that goes into playing here… Ankit was in a nice groove, almost right from the opening tip, he was hunting and looking for matchups… Now we're staying home over the Christmas break this year and I'm glad we made that decision. We need the rest and the break ahead of next semester." – Gee-Gees head coach James Derouin.

"I feel like collectively we're hitting our peak, going into TMU and building momentum off that, then coming in here, just building. I feel like it's all about growth, just trying to see how we get better. Especially against nationally ranked teams, we want to show up for those games." – Ottawa guard Ankit Choudhary.

UP NEXT:

The Gee-Gees will return to the court for an exhibition matchup with the Concordia Stingers on Jan. 4 at Montpetit Hall. Doubleheader tickets with the women's basketball game against Concordia are available at tickets.geegees.ca, a live stream will not be available. Ottawa will resume their OUA regular season in Thunder Bay at Lakehead on Jan. 10.