Trailing for the majority of the first thirty-eight minutes, Quinnipiac used its veteran poise to escape with a 63-58 win in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference quarterfinals over Canisius.

With a minute and twenty-six seconds left, it was captain Carly Fabbri to notch the game-winner.

“I had missed pretty badly my shot before, but shooters shoot,” Fabbri said. “I’m confident. It’s March. I know my role on the team. I know that when I’m given the ball I can knock it down.”

And knock it down she did.

“Anytime we run that play, iso, Aryn [McClure] does a pretty good job at getting the ball to the open player,” Fabbri said. “It’s one of our go-to plays. We don’t typically use it early in games because we like to have it in our back pockets.”

Well the Bobcats were lucky to still have that play in their back pocket because they did not start the game as they had hoped.

Canisius’ Maria Welch hit a three with just over eight minutes to go in the first half that gave the Golden Griffins an eight-point lead.

Head coach Tricia Fabbri praised her counterpart, Canisius’ head coach Terry Zeh for his job with this Golden Griffins team coming out so strong to start the game, and playing hard like they have all year.

“So much credit and respect to Terry Zeh and the job he did all season,” Tricia Fabbri said. “We’re a pretty good defensive team. His team is really difficult to defend.”

Adily Martucci lit a spark for the Bobcats soon after Welch’s triple. Martucci hit a two layups and a three-pointer that forced Canisius to take a timeout, cutting the deficit to just one.

Martucci showed the emotion that she has toward winning this tournament with a huge fist pump and embrace with her teammates as they went into the huddle.

“You got to get hype when you hit shots,” Martucci said. “Just being excited about that because the hype and energy that you give out is contagious, and everyone feeds off of it.”

Down by three with just over six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Morgan Manz tied the game at 55 with a triple of her own. A few ticks later Martucci tied it at 57, and then it was Carly Fabbri’s turn to be the hero.

“I was open and I was confident in taking the shot,” the junior captain said. “Obviously when it went in, it was good to see that lead. I felt good about it.”

FINAL: #Quinnipiac defeats #Canisius 63-58. What. A. Game. pic.twitter.com/xYgywDPyUe

— Bryan Schwartz (@BryanSchwartz15) March 3, 2017

The Bobcats and Tricia Fabbri still have some work to do to reach their ultimate goal of a MAAC title. They face the winner of Saturday’s Siena and Iona game Sunday in Albany.

For continued coverage of the MAAC tournament follow our QBSN reporters @BryanSchwartz15, @JoshMSilverman, @shanedennehy15 and @ryanchichester1.