A new season has dawned on the Quinnipiac women’s basketball team as they opened up their season against the Maine Black Bears on Monday night. The Bobcats took care of business beating the Maine Black Bears by a score of 70-57.
“Many different players had superlative performances in their debut,” head coach Trisha Fabbri said. “But it was all 15 of these young ladies since the summer, the five weeks and 30 days getting ready and just getting better for what is a little glimpse into things to come.”
The Bobcats played three of the freshmen, starting two of them with freshmen guard Paige Girardi and center Anna Foley with guard Karson Martin having nine points off the bench.
“I know coming off the bench, you’ve got a lot of responsibilities and you have to uphold all the energy and I just went out there and did what I knew I needed to do,” Martin said.
Girardi only finished with two points but her work off the ball is where she showed her presence, having seven rebounds and three assists. Foley impressed in her debut scoring 21 points in the game which is a record for points in a debut by a Bobcat.
“I’m just kind of being myself. Trust that I’m ready for this and that we were all ready for this and I had my teammates behind me,” Foley said. “I was a little nervous to start shaky but once I got back in the second quarter I knew if I just relaxed and played my game and trusted my teammates that everything would work out.”
Being the captain is easy for sophomore guard Jackie Grisdale even though 50% of the team is new to the program because they work day in and day out to become a part of the team.
“It’s the easiest leadership duties I’ve ever had,” Grisdale said. “They are so willing to learn and work hard every day that it just makes it so easy on me when I’m trying to give my advice and my positivity. They take it in stride.”
For the players, chemistry clicked since day one which helped to learn their teammates’ games.
“The chemistry that we had from day one coming into the summer and then the first practice of the season was so amazing,” Martin said. “We all clicked right away and we all understood each other’s game.”
Grisdale showed her leadership as she started the action early as she had five points within the first three minutes of the first quarter. She finished with eight of the 12 points for the Bobcats in the quarter. Maine’s 7-0 run to end the first quarter put the Bobcats behind by seven going into the second quarter.
The Bobcats came out firing in the second quarter though having a 10-2 run behind six points by Grisdale to give the Bobcats the lead of 22-21. A later 9-0 run was fueled by Martin who had five points and assisted on the other two baskets to put the Bobcats up six, causing Maine to take a timeout. After the timeout for Maine, the Black Bears finished the quarter on a 6-2 run to pull it within two as the Bobcats had a 33-31 lead going into halftime.
Maine kept it close at the television timeout in the third quarter as the Bobcats only led by two points at 42-40. The Bobcats started to pull away from the Black Bears as the Bobcats ended the quarter on a 14-1 run in the last four minutes and 50 seconds of the quarter to go into the final quarter up 54-41. During the run, Foley had six points and two assists alongside six points by sophomore forward Ella O’Donnell.
The Bobcats rode the run into the fourth quarter as they added onto it to make it a 22-5 run for ten minutes spanning across the second half of the third quarter and the first half of the fourth to go up 62-45.
After late fouls by Maine, the Bobcats took those opportunities and ran away with the game winning the first game of the season with a score of 70-57. The Bobcats’ next game is away from home in Cambridge, Massachusetts as they take on the Harvard Crimson on Nov. 12.
“We don’t back down from competition and these games that are upcoming,” Fabbri said. “These young ladies were eager to get out there and show everybody what we have.”
