The Quinnipiac men’s basketball team dropped a shocker to the Canisius Golden Griffins, 74-67 Friday afternoon. With the loss, the Bobcats dropped to 5-8 overall and 3-6 in the MAAC.

The game was a defensive battle, as both teams struggled on the offensive end. Quinnipiac and Canisius combined to score only 15 points through the first 10 minutes, 13 of those coming from the Bobcats.

Quinnipiac’s defensive effort was great in the first half, holding Canisius to only 21 points, heading into the break with a 13-point lead.

Canisius’s offensive struggles can largely be attributed to the fact that they had not played a game since they defeated St. Peter’s on January 3.

Seth Pinkney’s four blocks led the Quinnipiac defense, which held Canisius to under 40% shooting on the game. Pinkney’s four blocks were in addition to 10 rebounds and nine points.

In the second half, Canisius flat out dominated. The Golden Griffins outscored the Bobcats by 20 points in the second frame to secure the win.

The Bobcats were outscored 10-2 over the last five minutes.

Ahamadou Fofana’s three-pointer with 3:44 remaining gave Canisius the lead for good. Fofana was Canisius’s second leading scorer this afternoon, scoring 16 points on 5-11 shooting along with five assists and four rebounds.

Jacco Fritz was the Golden Griffin’s leading scorer, pouring in 18 points in 31 minutes of action.

The Bobcats turned the ball over 17 times, which head coach Baker Dunleavy stated was one of their biggest issues in today’s loss. “I think that, and rebounding were our biggest issues tonight,” Dunleavy said.

Senior Jacob Rigoni led the Bobcats’ scoring effort, tallying 17 points on 6-10 shooting from the field, with five rebounds and two assists to go along with it.

Rigoni stated that while this was a tough loss, “the team has to stick together” in order to keep moving in the right direction.

Dunleavy praised how vocal Rigoni has been in the locker room, especially with the younger players.

“His [Rigoni’s] voice carries throughout the team, the younger guys especially,” Dunleavy said. “He’s been great with them.”

These two teams face off again tomorrow for the final game of their two-game series at 1 p.m on ESPN3.