The Quinnipiac men’s basketball team won its second straight game with a 76-63 victory over Lafayette on Saturday afternoon. 

Redshirt senior guard Matt Balanc set the tempo early for the Bobcats, knocking down two threes in the first four minutes, while scoring eight of the Bobcats’ first 11 points.

“I’m already a pretty confident guy, but once I see the ball go in it helps me, plus it opens up a lot for my teammates,” Balanc said.  

The Bobcats outmatched the Leopards inside all game, dominating the glass and imposing their physicality on the Lafayette big men.

Graduate student forward Ike Nweke made his mark on the game early on, rejecting Lafayette sophomore center Justin Vander Baan’s dunk attempt before drawing a foul on the other end and hitting both free throws 

https://twitter.com/QU_MBB/status/1601646242206924802?s=20&t=Qi9oebMTCAS2NId3dm-YMw

The Bobcats were without redshirt senior guard Savion Lewis, which pushed junior guard Luis Kortright to handle the ball more. 

Kortright flourished with the ball in his hand, allowing the Bobcat offense to flow effortlessly without Lewis.

“It felt good,” Kortright said. “I know how to facilitate, I know how to run the one, it was with me all my life, so I’m happy Coach is allowing me to do it more often with Savion out today, hopefully he comes back next game.”

Kortright got a spinning layup to fall with two seconds to go in the first half, giving the Bobcats a 41-30 lead heading into the break. 

Kortright took the momentum from the first half and kept it going into the second. He was all over the place, dishing out assists to his teammates and pulling down rebounds, while helping the Bobcats open up a 16-point lead over Lafayette. 

Just four minutes into the second half, Kortright was on triple-double watch with eight points, nine rebounds and eight assists.

The Leopards responded well to the large Quinnipiac lead, responding with a couple runs of their own to keep themselves in the game. 

“Lafayette is a really hard team to guard… they’re one of the best shooting teams in the country and that’s something that we’ve struggled with to this point, just defending shooters,” Quinnipiac head coach Baker Dunleavy said. 

The Bobcats had their lead trimmed all the way down from seven, but Kortright, once again, had an answer. A tough bucket from Kortright snapped a three-minute scoreless streak for the Bobcats. 

Kortright continued to dominate as the game inched towards crunch time. The forward was able to snag his 10th rebound for a double-double, while setting up Nweke for a nice layup that put him just one assist shy of a triple-double. 

As the two teams battled on the defensive end and scoring slowed down, the Bobcats again turned to the man that had been reliable for them all game, Luis Kortright. 

Kortright sized up a Leopard defender before stepping-back and knocking down a three while he was fouled to set up a four-point play. 

The Bobcats on the floor tried to get Kortright his triple-double, but it wasn’t meant to be as he dribbled out the shot clock up 13 with less than 30 seconds remaining for a 76-63 win.

“He doesn’t care about that, we don’t care about that. If I knew he was one assist away we would have played and let him get the assist,” Dunleavy said. “It’s just not how we think, it’s not how he thinks, and it’s a testament to how he thinks.”

The Bobcats now travel to New Jersey, where they will clash with the reigning MAAC champion Saint Peter’s Peacocks on Dec. 18.