On Monday evening the Quinnipiac Bobcats defeated the Coast Guard Bears in the team’s first game of the season by a final score of 116-48.
The victory marks the first win for the Bobcats in the Tom Pecora era.
“Tom Pecora is great, I love him, I love him,” said Rihards Vavers. “He gives me a lot of freedom, we’ll have to see how the season goes, but so far it’s been amazing.
This scoring output for the Bobcats set a new program record for most points scored in a division-one game, exceeding their previous mark of 107 set in 2017.
The Bears, a division three program, got out to a surprisingly hot start as Mitch Shettles was able to put up back-to-back three-pointers to give them a 6-3 lead.
Following this, the Bobcats promptly went on a 16-0 run to take a 19-6 lead. The run was inspired by transition offense and getting to the rim for easy layups and foul calls leading to free throws.
The Bears however were able to battle back a bit as they clawed back to make this a 20-13 game.
This was as close as they would get in the first half of the game as the Bobcats completely took over for the rest of the game.
“We just wore them down,” said Pecora. “You know I think our depth is great and I think our leadership tonight was very good.”
On the offensive side, they were able to hit five threes, with Matt Balanc leading the way with three of his own threes and 10 points.
The defensive side is where the Bobcats were most dominant in this half, as they suffocated the Bears offense forcing eight turnovers, including two 24-second shot clock violations.
The half was capped by a Doug Young buzzer-beater three for the Bobcats as they took a 67-28 lead into the break.
Moving into the second half, it was more of the same for the Bobcats as they had their way on both sides of the ball, opening up the half on a 15-2 run.
Everyone was getting in on the fun for the team as JJ Riggins had the arena exploding on a back-to-back sequence, hitting a layup on a slick move on one end, then taking a charge down the other.
Nick Margetson, a walk-on from last year, was strong as well, making several plays on both sides of the ball.
“It was good, I can’t lie,” said Young. “When everybody’s playing good, everybody eats.”
Everyone certainly did eat as every single player for the Bobcats scored in this one.
This was a big offensive game for the Bobcats as their leading scorer was Matt Balanc with 20 points and the Bears were led by Shettle with nine points.
The Bobcats will look to keep the momentum going when they take on Central Connecticut State University in Hamden on Friday, Nov. 10 at 4:00 p.m.
