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The Bobcats shook the tournament monkey off their backs by claiming their first tournament win in four years with a 67-58 win over Siena on Thursday night. With the win, the Bobcats completed a three-game sweep of the Saints this season.
After going 3-0 against the Saints in 2018, the Bobcats will now look to avoid falling victim to a three-game sweep when they meet Canisius in the MAAC quarterfinals on Friday night.
The Golden Griffs took both regular season games from the Bobcats, en route to earning a share of the MAAC regular season title. The Bobcats will enter the contest as a heavy underdog against the current class of the conference.
Here is what you need to know ahead of Friday night’s matchup, perhaps the biggest Quinnipiac men’s basketball game in four years:
Wire-to-wire
Despite dropping both games to Canisius, the Bobcats were in decent position to pull off an upset on both occasions. In their home loss to the Golden Griffs, the Bobcats chipped away at a 16-point second half deficit, cutting the lead to two on numerous occasions before Canisius put them away down the stretch. In Buffalo, the Bobcats actually held an early second-half lead before a quick run from the Golden Griffs spoiled the Bobcats’ hopes once again.
The Bobcats have shown they can hang with the Griffs. If they want to advance to the semifinals, they will have to play a complete game for 40 minutes, something they have struggled with for much of the season.
Even in Thursday night’s comfortable win, the Bobcats needed a lightning-fast start to pull away and survive a second-half Siena run. The Bobcats used their most productive half of the season to build a 24-point lead, which dwindled to eight in the second half before they eventually closed the door.
“Any time you take that type of lead, it’s easy to fall into that mindset of just hanging in there,” Baker Dunleavy said after the first round win. “We probably could have done a better job at staying aggressive.”
Dunleavy will need another hot start from his freshmen duo of Jacob Rigoni and Rich Kelly to keep the offense in pace with a Golden Griffs team that shoots 47-percent from the field as a group, good for second in the MAAC. Siena’s lagging offense was a far easier team to keep at arm’s length than a high-flying Canisius team that can score in bunches. They showed that both times against the Bobcats this season.
Containing Canisius’ potent offensive duo
The Bobcats played their best defense of the season against Siena, who was without their top two scorers in Nico Clareth and Roman Penn. Canisius will be at full strength on Friday night and will have two of the most reliable scorers in the conference in their corner.
Jermaine Crumpton and Isaiah Reese both rank in the top ten in the MAAC in scoring this season, averaging 16.9 and 16.8 points per game respectively. Reese enjoyed two of his best performances of the season against the Bobcats, finishing with 20 points in Hamden and coming just three assists shy of a triple-double in a home win (13 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists). Meanwhile, Crumpton has scored a total of 33 points against the Bobcats over two games while shooting 11-for-21 from the field.
The Bobcats’ defense looked fantastic against Siena in the tournament opener. After allowing the Saints to shoot over 60-percent from three through two regular season games, the improved defense held the Saints to just 4-of-20 from beyond the arc on Thursday night. Isaiah Washington and Cam Young will have to lock down the perimeter again, while interior defenders like Alain Chigha and Abdulai Bundu will have to play the game of their lives to keep their season alive for another day.
Quinnipiac and Canisius tip-off at 9:30 p.m. at the Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y. You can listen to @qbsn broadcast by Bryan Schwartz and Ryan Chichester. You can follow them on Twitter @BryanSchwartz15 and @ryanchichester1. Link to the broadcast: mixlr.com/qbsn.
