Playing their first home game of the 2022-23 season, the Quinnipiac women’s basketball team defeated the Central Connecticut State Blue Devils 72-54 Saturday afternoon in Hamden, CT, and secured their first win of the new campaign.

The Bobcats were able to pull away against the Blue Devils without one of their stars, as graduate student guard Mackenzie DeWees missed her second consecutive game. Head coach Tricia Fabbri described the injury as her “angry knee” and she will be sidelined for “a couple of weeks.”

Senior forward Cur’Tiera Haywood finished the game with 20 points, five rebounds, and four assists. She was 7-14 from the field and shot 2-3 from three-point land and was able to use her size and athleticism to make it a challenge for the Blue Devils defenders to guard her.

“It’s hard for people to guard me,” Haywood said. “On the three or outside the three, also in the paint too, so I use it the best way I can.

Joining Haywood in double figures was senior forward Mikala Morris, graduate student forward Mary Baskerville, and first-year forward Ella O’Donnell. Baskerville also recorded a team-high seven rebounds in the victory.

“It’s amazing,” Fabbri said. “I think you’re just starting to see glimpses of her understanding and getting comfortable with playing how we want to play.”

Coach Fabbri went with an interesting form of substitutions, bringing five on and five off every time she made a change. Baskerville and O’Donnell led the charge for the second unit that scored a combined 26 points in 14 minutes.

As for Central Connecticut St, they were led by 13 points from junior guard Dejah Jenkins and 12 points from first-year guard Ally Sentance. The Blue Devils had some trouble offensively, as they had 20 turnovers and shot just 37% from the field. In the second quarter, they only scored eight points.

“Everything’s still new,” Fabbri said. “We’ve had to adjust quickly and didn’t really have a lot of time to adjust for NC State with Mack being out. We had more time to adjust to being without her.”

The win marks the first of the season for the Bobcats. On Monday, they fell to No. 10 ranked NC State on the road 82-45 and turned the ball over 21 times. Saturday afternoon was a different story.

“Rose Caverly and Jackie Grisdale handled the ball the entire time these past two games and their assist-to-turnover ratio is fantastic,” Fabbri said. “If you look at our live ball turnovers, we really do take care of the ball.”

Up next for the Bobcats is a home contest against Hartford on Monday, Nov. 14, at 6 p.m. as they look to improve to 2-1 on the young season.