Quinnipiac has relied on defense and timely shooting to advance to conference title game
Tricia Fabbri’s Bobcats don’t shy away from their style of play, regardless of the initial result. If the shots aren’t falling, they keep letting it fly.
Even when the Bobcats are ice cold from beyond the arc, their lockdown defense keeps them in the game while their three point shooting rises from a mild simmer to an all-out boil.
“Everyone looks at our low percentage shots and forgets about our defensive play,” coach Fabbri said after Sunday’s semifinal win over Iona. “This is who we have been all year.”
It was certainly who they were in Friday’s quarterfinal match with Canisius, who held the Bobcats to 3-14 shooting from downtown in the first half as the Golden Griffs confidently went into halftime with a six-point lead. Despite the struggles from beyond the arc, the Bobcats arrived for the second half without any tinkering of their offensive game plan. Apparently they didn’t need one.
The Bobcats missed their first two three pointers of the second half before nailing four of their last seven, including Carly Fabbri’s heroic triple to break a tie game in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter to propel the Bobcats to the semifinals.
Confidence was high heading into the long-awaited semifinal rematch with Iona, who bounced Quinnipiac in the conference finals a season prior. Surely if the Bobcats were to shoot the way they did in the first half against a team like the Gaels, they wouldn’t live to tell about it, right?
Quinnipiac didn’t shoot like it did in the first half of the quarterfinals when the semifinals got underway on Saturday. Instead, it shot even worse from three, connecting on just two of their 14 attempts in the first half. Still, the defense showed up again as the Bobcats entered the second half trailing by just two.
The stingy defense of Quinnipiac held the Gaels to just six three-point attempts in the first half and limited sharp shooter Alexis Lewis to just one three-point field goal the entire game. Once again, the defense weathered the storm of missed three pointers until lightning struck in the second half.
Jen Fay nailed a pair of triples in the third quarter to bring the Bobcats back after their deficit had swelled to 10. They still trailed by three after the third quarter before their patience on offense was rewarded.
Adily Martucci, Fabbri and Fay all hit huge threes for the Bobcats in the fourth quarter to help their offensive surge and put the team up 10. Once again, the defense came up big on the other end and made the clutch stops in crunch time to seal the revenge victory for Quinnipiac. The Bobcats finished the fourth quarter shooting 4-5 from downtown. Once again, the second half shooting of the Bobcats was a completely different story than their performance in the first half.
“Regardless of how we come out, we know the game is 40 minutes,” Fabbri said at Saturday’s practice. “We’re just going to take it possession by possession.”
The Bobcats clearly pay no mind to the percentages early in the game. If the shots aren’t falling, they know they will eventually. Fabbri, Martucci and Fay don’t wait out their cold shooting; they simply shoot their way out of slumps, and that confidence and resilience has the Bobcats knocking on the door of another MAAC Championship and a trip to the big dance.
