The top two seeds in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference will square off at 5 p.m. today when Quinnipiac and Rider take the court at the Times Union Center in Albany, each looking to secure a MAAC title and dance their way into the NCAA Tournament.
Both teams find themselves with different circumstances, though the stakes remain the same. The Bobcats will be playing in their fifth straight conference title game, while Rider will be participating in their first MAAC Championship appearance, fresh off of their best regular season in program history.
Quinnipiac was able to shake the Iona monkey off of their backs in yesterday’s thrilling comeback win over the Gaels to advance to the finals. Rider held off Fairfield in their semifinal game, although it wasn’t a pretty performance as they shot 29.8 percent from the floor and converted on just three of their 13 three-point attempts. A shooting display like that will be a death sentence against a team like the Bobcats.
The Broncs may also be without their star player in Robin Perkins, who has missed seven straight games with an injury. After sitting out of this morning’s team shootaround, the outlook for Perkins is not good. Perkins was averaging 15.5 points per game before her injury, good for fifth best in the MAAC.
However, the Broncs have found success on the defensive end without their most prolific scorer, and were able to claw their way into this finals matchup. It will take a lot more to down the Bobcats and complete their magical run.
The Broncs have also relied on freshman Stella Johnson, who has shot 51 percent from the field so far this season, which is third best in the MAAC. However, she was held to just three points in Rider’s semifinal win yesterday.
The key for the Bobcats will be shutting down senior forward Julia Duggan, who leads the MAAC in rebounding and shoots 45 percent from the field.
“It’s definitely going to take team defense,” junior Sarah Shewan says of the Bobcats’ plan to contain Duggan on the glass. “It can’t just be one of us blocking her out. We need to know where she is at all times”
Whatever Quinnipiac’s plan was heading into their last matchup with Duggan and the Broncs, it certainly worked wonders. Duggan was held to seven rebounds and failed to record a point as the Bobcats forced 25 turnovers in a 79-53 beatdown back in January.
The Broncs boast the second best shooting defense in the MAAC, holding their opponents to a 37 percent clip from the field this season. The Bobcats have come out cold from the floor in both tournament games so far, but they know it only takes one teammate to heat up before they all catch fire.
“What’s so special about our team is that anyone can make that big shot at any time,” Morgan Manz said after today’s shootaround. “When one person hits that shot, it hypes us all up, regardless of who it is.”
The Broncs were painfully aware of this philosophy when the two teams met for the first time this season back in December, when the Bobcats’ offense erupted for a season high 91 points off of 53.4 percent field goal shooting, also a season best.
The million-dollar question for Rider will be if they can keep up with such a scoring pace without their most valuable offensive player. It will be a tall order, but anything can happen in a championship game, especially with a trip to March Madness on the line.
