The Quinnipiac Bobcats men’s basketball team won a back-and-forth battle against the Canisius Golden Griffins with a final score of 87-82. 

“I feel like there were multiple games within that game,” said head coach Baker Dunleavy. “Obviously I wasn’t too pleased with our executions at the start of the game but we responded.” 

Quinnipiac had a rough start to the first half of the game with seven turnovers in the first eight minutes. The Bobcats only ended up having three more turnovers for the rest of the game. 

“That was one of the things we talked about,” said Dunleavy “We did a good job on making the adjustment, I wish we didn’t have to but once we realized that was an issue we talked about it.”

The battle for the lead started early in the game with Canisius going on an eight-point run to take the lead from Quinnipiac with a score of  13-10.  This didn’t stop Quinniac though as the Bobcats soon retook the lead and would go on a run to gain an 11-point lead with a score of 40-29. 

The Bobcats would end the first half with a lay-up from Ike Nweke right before the buzzer to finish with a score of 42-31. 

“I just thought Ike’s activity level was terrific,” said Dunleavy. “I thought he had a great intensity about him. He’s a big part of what we do.”

As the second half started, Canisius came out ready to battle. The Golden Griffins tied the game after a jump shot from guard Jordan Henderson with 12:59 left. 

Quinnipiac took a timeout in response to the tie game and came back with a two-pointer from Luis Kortright.  

“He did a really good job for us,” said Dunleavy. “I mean he can play the point, play the run, and he gives us great size on both ends. He had to do a lot for us today and I’m proud of the way he handled it.”

As the clock ticked down, each team continued to battle for the lead until Kortright made the corner three to make the lead four points for Quinnipiac with a score of 78-74. Canisius wasn’t out of it yet though as they kept the score within five points through the end of the game.

The game ended with Matt Balanc making a steal and dunking it right into the hoop with 27.5 seconds remaining and the Bobcats finished with a final score of 87-82. 

“Our guys kept battling and didn’t lose their fight and found a way to finish,” said Dunleavy. “Overall I am very pleased to be able to find a way to win a game like this.”

Ike Nweke was the biggest star of the game with a career-high of 24 points, seven rebounds, and three assists. Also in the double digits was junior forward Paul Otieno with 14 points and Kortright with 11 points. 

“All I’m going to do is just play my role and the ball is going to find me,” said Nweke. “Just pretty much-doing everything that I possibly could on the basketball court, as hard as I possibly could, and I just knew that good things would happen. Good things happened and I had my career high today.”

While the Golden Griffins may have lost, sophomore guard TJ Gadsden had an impressive 22 points, 11 rebounds, and one assist. Tre Dinkins followed closely behind with 19 points in today’s game. 

“Not having beaten Canisius in two years and having beaten them on our own court today, that was just incredibly special,” Nweke said. 

Today’s win brings the Bobcats to a six-game winning streak and a record of 15-5. The future looks bright for Quinnipiac as they look to play their next game away at Iona, next Sunday at 1:00 p.m.