Last season the Marist Red Foxes were Goliath, and Quinnipiac Bobcats were David. Marist had won eight consecutive MAAC Championships, and Quinnipiac was in the midst of their first year in the MAAC. They had a chance to knock the Red Foxes off of their throne, but they came up just short.
This season, Quinnipiac did not just knock Marist off of their throne. They took the throne for themselves.
In a rematch of last year’s championship game, the first half contained a handful of similarities. Senior Jasmine Martin was the energizer; she made a few key field goals to get the offense going. Quinnipiac went on an early run to start the game, and another small run later in the half. Senior Gillian “Boo” Abshire got herself into early foul trouble, and was forced to go to the bench.
Even in the second half, the game was trending the same way. Quinnipiac was scoring, and they were taking away more of Marist’s game than Marist was of Quinnipiac’s. Abshire picked up her fourth foul and was once again forced to go to the bench. Head coach Tricia Fabbri had to go to her backup point guard, and that was when things went downhill last year.
But when Fabbri had to go to her backup point guard tonight, the game did not go downhill. Quinnipiac did not lose control. They did not run out of gas. Instead, they did the opposite.
With about 11 minutes left in the game, Quinnipiac had a three-point lead. But Abshire was still on the bench with four fouls. Grad student Val Driscoll was also in foul trouble. Tori Jarosz was tearing the Bobcats apart for the Red Foxes. It was looking like Marist was getting some life back, and it was shaping up to be a similar come-from-behind win for Brian Giorgis and his Red Foxes.
But that was when senior Nikoline Ostergaard and sophomore Brianah Ramos stepped up for the Bobcats.
As a freshman, Ramos did not play in last year’s championship game. In the first half of tonight’s game, she recorded just two minutes of playing time. But when Abshire went down with her fourth foul, Ramos was the one standing in her place.
With nearly 10 minutes remaining, Ramos drove to the basket and got fouled. She got the layup to fall, and converted from the stripe to give the Bobcats a 50-44 lead. But her and-one did more than just extend the lead. It was the beginning of the end for Marist.
“She [Ramos] was fantastic,” Fabbri said. “And I think it’s a microcosm of how our season’s been. Every game, all season long. It’s really been someone who has made a play for us to go on to break the game wide open.”
And that is what they did. A minute later Driscoll buried a jumper. Then Martin finished at the hoop. Ostergaard followed that with a pair of free throws, and the next time down the court, Martin sank another jump shot.
Then Ostergaard and Ramos went to work again, and the Bobcats found themselves up 67-51 with less than three minutes to play.
From there on out it was smooth sailing for Fabbri and her squad. When Abshire re-entered the game, they were in the midst of sealing the deal on Marist. After a short Marist push, Abshire knocked down some free throws, and the Bobcats held on for the 72-61 win.
Samantha Guastella, a large part of Fabbri’s offense, was held to just six points tonight. Despite being a shooter, and it being her lowest total in her last 15 games, she did not care what the stats said.
“I was fine with watching Nikoline go to work inside and seeing everyone else succeed,” Guastella said. “And we have a championship now because of it so I couldn’t be more happy.”
Giorgis knew going in that if he wanted to walk away from Albany with his tenth consecutive championship, he was going to have to limit Guastella’s opportunities. After the game, he said that his team executed the defensive game plan the way he wanted them to. He said that they did what they wanted to do, but Quinnipiac did a nice job of finding points in other places.
“Sometime it’s not what we did wrong,” Giorgis said. “It’s what they did right, and they made nice plays.”
Giorgis also spoke to Jasmine Martin, and the tournament that she had. Martin finished this weekend averaging 19 points, shooting 7-16 from downtown, and 14-15 from the line, and it was enough to earn her MVP of the tournament.
Martin and her teammates were dancing at center-court after the game, basking in glory. The Bobcats are headed back to the NCAA Tournament. Fabbri joined her team at center-court and danced with them for a few seconds. Then she stepped back, looked at the players she loves, and smiled.
“How good does this feel?” Fabbri yelled.
