The Quinnipiac Bobcats traveled to Pennsylvania to take on the Lafayette Leopards in a nonconference game on Thursday, Dec. 21 . Despite the slow start for the Bobcats, Quinnipiac won 78-60 over the Leopards. Coming into this game Lafayette had struggled and only won one game this season over a Division III school (Wilkes University).
Throughout the first half, there was a lot of back-and-forth action. The main reason for this is that Tom Pecora tested out many new things like 10 different Bobcats taking the floor in the first half including JJ Riggins, Khaden Bennett and Daemar Kelly. This was similar to the Bobcats game vs. Navy. The first half was slow-paced with some scoring but the second half ramped up with lots of scoring.
Quinnipiac was able to contain Lafayette’s strong seven-footer Justin Vander Baan. Despite Paul Otieno being four inches shorter than him the Bobcats were able to still beat Lafayette out in rebounds.
In terms of statistics, Quinnipiac had a lot of impressive ones. The Bobcats only struggled from the charity stripe where they shot 65%. The Bobcats also shot 46.8% from the field, 38.9% from three, and led for 39 minutes of the game. Amarri Tice showed off his rebounding and scoring skills as he dropped a season-high 21 points on 9-14 shooting and grabbed a season-high 15 rebounds (six offensive). Matt Balanc led the team with 22 points and improved his points per game total this season to upwards of 18.
During the second half, we saw some antics. After there was a clear jump ball whistles blew but none of the players would let go. As Savion Lewis and Chris Rubayo fought for the ball they were slammed on the ground causing them to get technical fouls. After the review happened Balanc would argue a call saying “he fell down” which would give him a technical foul of his own.
After all of this, Balanc flew toward the rim and shot threes toward the end of the game. The score was 70-57 as Lafayette was trying to make a comeback but Balanc called the isolation. He sized up his defender and hit a Jason Tatum-esque type side step three to ultimately put the dagger into the Leopards team. The game would go on and the Bobcats would get the win.
Quinnipiac now starts another winning streak and improves to 9-3 (1-1 MAAC) to start the season. This is a good step in the right direction but they have their toughest task yet. Quinnipiac now travels to Gainesville, Florida to take on the University of Florida Gators. Florida is not near a top 25 ranking but they are a nationally televised team that always gets attention and is a former and the most recent team to win back-to-back national championships in basketball. Florida is no longer a national-championship caliber team but they still have the strength as they are one of the strongest conferences in the nation.
Quinnipiac takes on the University of Florida for their last game of 2023 on Dec. 30 at 1 p.m.
