The Quinnipiac women’s basketball team is filled to the brim with unsung heroes. The well-oiled machine hides their stellar individual talents with a crisp group production that sacrifices flashy stat sheets for total team dominance.
The balanced Bobcats often cause spectators to take the individuals for granted. In a season where Tricia Fabbri’s group went undefeated in conference play while boasting the top offense and defense in the MAAC, yet no Bobcats players were recognized at the MAAC Awards Ceremony on Saturday morning. Fabbri’s Coach of the Year Award is the only individual hardware that the Bobcats will be bringing home from Hamden.
Fabbri has expressed her disappointment in the lack of recognition for her group, wishing Aryn McClure or Jen Fay were recognized as conference Player of the Year. However, with a roster full of hidden gems, the best-kept secret for the Bobcats might be junior Paula Strautmane, who nonchalantly picked up a double-double in the Bobcats’ MAAC quarterfinal win over Monmouth on Friday. Strautmane grabbed eight offensive rebounds in the winning effort to help flex the offense into a rhythm after starting the game just 2-for-10 from the field. Her interior dominance led to a 40-22 scoring advantage in the paint for the Bobcats in their 20th consecutive win.
“That’s been my role on the team, just to work hard,” Strautmane said. “So that’s what I did.”
Strautmane’s grind-it-out style epitomizes the Bobcats’ stigma of anonymity. Lurking in the shadows of the rim while she quietly collects any loose ball within her reach, the Latvia native has continued to improve her game since crossing the Atlantic to Hamden. Her efforts may not make the headlines, but they never go unnoticed on the Bobcat bench.
“This is something Paula has done consistently all year for us, both rebounding offensively and defensively,” Fabbri said after Friday’s blowout win. “I’d like to see her turn that into a little more offensive production for herself. This is the right time for that to happen.”
Strautmane took a step in Fabbri’s desired direction on Friday, consistently attacking the basket following her own offensive rebounds, leading to her first double-double of the season and the first postseason double-double by a Bobcat since Strautmane herself scored 11 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in Quinnipiac’s thrilling NCAA Tournament win over Miami last season.
Whatever the Bobcats need in a particular game, they seem to get from Strautmane. After starting cold from the floor, the team needed second chances and more open looks. Strautmane responded with four offensive boards in the game’s first 11 minutes. In one of Quinnipiac’s few conference nail-biters against Marist in the regular season, the Bobcats needed interior defense after being outscored in the paint. Strautmane stepped up and blocked seven shots to hold the fort on defense and seal a big win.
“We know we can have low times in the game when shots aren’t going in, and all you can do at those times is step up on defense,” Strautmane said.
Strautmane has consistently stepped up on the defensive end and on the glass, but Fabbri knows she may have hit a gold mine if her junior forward can start to fill the scoring column like she did on Friday.
“It was really nice was her being able to convert it to some really nice production offensively,” Fabbri said. “I think that’s going to be really key for us going forward.”
Much of the Bobcats roster remains hidden beneath their own success, yet they have a chance to advance to their fifth-straight MAAC finals appearance with a win on Sunday. Should they take care of business and advance, Strautmane will likely play a major role. You might not hear about it or see it on the stat sheet, but that’s not where her true value is measured.
