On Senior Day, the Quinnipiac Bobcats men’s basketball team fell to MAAC opponent Manhattan 62-58, finishing their regular season over .500 (16-13, 11-7 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) for the first time since the 2013-2014 season.
“Disappointing day for us,” Quinnipiac head coach Baker Dunleavy said. “We’ve been playing good basketball on the road. Two straight road wins we feel good about where we are last game of the season.”
Next up, Quinnipiac will head up to Albany as the third seed in the MAAC Tournament. Despite the loss against Manhattan, the Bobcats will have a much improved seed this year, as last year they were the seven seed in the tournament.
Senior Abdulai Bundu, who finished with five points and a team high seven rebounds, said every squad he has played on at Quinnipiac has been special, but the 2018-2019 Bobcats are the most successful of the four.
“Everybody has a positive attitude,” Bundu said. “We messed up a lot of times and the guys just keep it together.”
It was a back-and-forth game between the two teams as there were eight lead changes the entire game.
Quinnipiac’s leading scorer Cam Young had 16 points. Young was having trouble getting open and every time he touched the ball he would be double teamed.
The Bobcats lived and died by the three pointer against Manhattan. In the first half they shot 4-for-16 from behind the arc. 61 percent of Quinnipiac’s first half points came from three-pointers. The Bobcats improved their three point shooting in the second half by knocking down five of their 11 attempts. Overall they finished the game shooting 9-for-27 (33.3%) from behind the arc.
“[In the second half] I thought we had more body movement and ball movement,” Dunleavy said. “[In the first half] we were more staggered physically.”
Quinnipiac did not attempt a three pointer down by three points with 10.8 seconds left. Sophomore point guard Rich Kelly drove to basketball for a quick two points instead.
“If we had a quick two we could have taken the quick two but that late we probably would have wanted it to be three,” Dunleavy said. “The best thing would have probably been the drive and kick.”
Kelly finished the game with a team high 17 points, shooting 4-9 from behind the three-point line.
Junior forward Kevin Marfo only played one minute in the first half, but when he got on the court in the second half he proved why he deserves playing time. With 10:50 left in the second half, Marfo had a highlight reel block. Just 14 seconds later he drew a foul and hit both free throws to close the gap to 41-40.
Marfo didn’t stop there. With 8:54 left in the game, he received a standing ovation from the crowd when he dived through a pile of Jaspers’ to save possession of the basketball for the Bobcats.
With the game tied at 54 with 1:45 left, Nehemiah Mack would knock down a three pointer for Manhattan and the Jaspers never looked back.
Coach Dunleavy says heading into the MAAC Tournament there are still plenty of things to take away from the loss.
“We didn’t have a great start to the game,” Dunleavy said. I thought at times we did a great job responding and making runs but if you fall one run short you’re going to lose a game. It’s always fun to learn from a win but sometimes you’re motivated by that feeling you get in your gut after a loss.”
