The Quinnipiac Bobcats have nothing but the bitter taste of disappointment in their mouths tonight, and they have no one to blame but themselves. 

Up 72-64 with 97 seconds left, the Bobcats allowed the Monmouth Hawks to go on a 9-1 run to end regulation, sending the game to overtime, where they eventually lost 92-80 at the OceanFirst Bank Center Friday evening. 

Here are three takeaways from what ended up being an unfortunate ending to a mostly solid game of basketball for the Bobcats.

1. Quinnipiac’s defense is still really good

Coming into this game, Monmouth found themselves averaging nearly 80 points a game, and up until the last 100 seconds, the Bobcats held the Hawks to just 64 points.  

Deion Hammond, the talented senior guard for the Hawks came in averaging 19 points per contest on 46% shooting from the field, and 40% shooting from three. The Bobcats’ stingy defense bothered Hammond enough to make him shoot just 5-21 from the field including 2-9 from three-point range. 

Regardless of the final score, that is a really good defensive effort that Coach Baker Dunleavy should be proud of. 

2. Turnovers killed Quinnipiac

The largest reason that the Bobcats found themselves on the wrong side of the scoreboard at the final buzzer was the fact that they turned the ball over too many times. It’s an issue that has plagued the Bobcats in seemingly every game.

Coming into this game, the Bobcats turned the ball over on average 16.2 times per game, the most in the MAAC.  Quinnipiac turned the ball over 27 times today versus the Hawks. 

Savion Lewis had nine turnovers. Tyrese Williams had six turnovers. These totals aren’t acceptable for the primary ballhandlers of an NCAA team.

If the Bobcats are to consistently win games, they need to clean up mistakes like not being able to hold onto the basketball. Clearly, the full-court press that Monmouth ran on defense towards the end of regulation really frustrated Quinnipiac and ultimately did them no favors in trying to slow the game down and control the clock.

3. Play at your own pace 

According to the KenPom rankings, the Hawks have the fastest AdjT (adjusted tempo) of any team in college basketball at 77.6 possessions per game. This means that Monmouth runs more offensive possessions per 40 minutes than any other team in the country. 

Quinnipiac meanwhile, is 106th in the country at 70.5 possessions per game. 

The Bobcats did a really nice job of slowing the game down and playing in the halfcourt for the first 38 minutes of the game, which really frustrated Monmouth. However, all the turnovers enabled the Hawks to be able to push the tempo quicker than the Bobcats prefer, leading to more mistakes. The Bobcats were unable to control the pace at all towards the end of the game and into overtime, leading to their fourth loss of the season and second in MAAC play.