The Quinnipiac Bobcats men’s basketball team (1-1, 0-0 MAAC) played host to the La Salle Explorers (2-0, 0-0 A-10) of the Atlantic 10 Conference on Tuesday night. The Bobcats opened their season on Friday with a double-overtime win over Yale, and they were looking to keep their momentum going.
However, the Explorers stopped them in their tracks.
Both teams came out of the gate with high energy, but the first four minutes of action was a mess. The sides combined to shoot just 5 of 17 from the floor up until the first media timeout, which noticeably slowed the game down.
Both the Bobcats and the Explorers started working the shot clock, rather than getting up and down as quickly as possible. For La Salle, the shooting percentages didn’t improve, but their head coach Dr. John Giannini wasn’t discouraged. In fact, he encouraged his team to continue shooting the ball.
“You have to take what the defense gives you,” Giannini said. “We weren’t scoring driving to the basket either. If they leave you open, and you’re a basketball player at this level, you have to make that [long] shot, or you’ll never score.”
The Bobcats began playing team defense. They started drawing charges, forcing turnovers and taking advantage of their opportunities, and head coach Tom Moore noticed.
“We played great defense in the first half,” Moore said. “We were really flying around.”
And as it so often does, good defense led to good offense.
About halfway through the first half, senior guard Zaid Hearst threw down a dunk in between a pair of Explorers that energized the crowd and his bench.
Quinnipiac harnessed the energy and was able to open up an 11-point lead heading into the final media timeout of the first half. However the Explorers outhustled the Bobcats out of the timeout, and were able to cut the lead to 7 entering the break.
Poor free throw shooting from La Salle (6-13) helped contribute to Quinnipiac’s first half lead, along with 10 points from Hearst, and a five point, six rebound effort from senior forward Justin Harris.
Quinnipiac was dominating the early goings of the second half until La Salle knocked down three straight threes to take a 42-40 lead. Prior to their nine-point run the Explorers hadn’t led since the opening possession of the game. .
La Salle was in a shooting rut all game; shooting just 5-24 from deep and 9-16 from the stripe at the five minute mark of the second half. But they were able to find the bottom of the net on a few straight possessions, and cracked open a six point lead, their largest of the night.
With 23 seconds remaining, La Salle still possessed a two-point lead, 58-56. La Salle’s sophomore guard Jordan Price drove to the middle and tried dumping the ball into the post but the ball went out of bounds.
Quinnipiac gained possession, carried it into the half court, and Hearst was fouled on a three-point attempt. He made two out of three free throws to tie the game, and gave the Bobcats a chance at an offensive rebound. However the ball bounced of sophomore forward Alain Chigha’s knee out of bounds.
La Salle quickly inbounded the ball, and Price proceeded to barrel down the court and earn a trip to the line, where he knocked down both free throws to regain a two-point lead for his team. With three seconds remaining, Hearst sprinted down the court in an effort to throw up a prayer shot, but never got the chance. He kicked the ball out of bounds and the final whistle sounded, with the final score in favor of the Explorers, 60-58.
Neither team produced a quality shooting percentage. And although Giannini took the more optimistic view on his team’s offensive production, Moore did not.
“Even when we had the lead, I didn’t feel like we had an offensive rhythm, and it got worse in the second half to be honest,” Moore said.
Moore was displeased with his team’s offense, but didn’t take any credit away from La Salle’s defense.
“I thought some of their energy would die down in the second half,” Moore said. “[..] Again to their credit they just kept coming, and coming.”
The Bobcats will look to rebound from this loss this coming Saturday, when they visit Albany for their first road game of the season.
