Mary Caton
The Windsor Star
 
Sooner or later, the road to a CIS men's basketball championship runs through the Carleton Ravens.
 
The No. 7-ranked Windsor Lancers reach that intersection Friday when they face the defending nationals champs in an OUA semifinal in Toronto at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
 
Game time is 6 p.m. Ottawa faces McMaster in the other semi at 8 p.m. The final and bronze-medal games are Saturday.
 
The No. 1-ranked Ravens have won eight of the last 10 CIS basketball titles with interruptions from Saskatchewan (2009-10) and Brock (2007-08).
 
"That's the reward," Windsor coach Chris Oliver said of winning last week's OUA quarter-final over Laurier. "It's a challenge for sure but we have a blueprint that can help us be successful against Carleton."
 
The Lancers have known success against the Ravens.
 
They took the OUA final from Carleton in 2006-07 on the St. Denis floor and they beat them as recently as Nov. 2012 with a 71-67 victory in Windsor.
 
"We built our team to play against the best," Oliver said. "We built our team to compete against that level."
 
The Lancers lost 95-74 in their only regular-season matchup of 2013-14 in Ottawa last November.
 
Windsor suffered through a rough first half but it was almost dead even at 48-47 in points through the second half.
 
The glaring statistical difference came at the free-throw line where the Ravens converted 29 of 33 while the Lancers were given just 16 free throws total and made 11. Carleton's Phil Scrubb was a perfect 15-of-15 from the line that day.
 
Tune in to Sportsnet ONE at 6:00pm Friday night to see the Lancers take on the Ravens.