Quinnipiac athletics’ first game of 2024 featured a women’s basketball 50-39 victory over the Saint Peter’s Peacocks in a Thursday afternoon matinee.
M&T Bank Arena boasted its largest crowd of the season as the program hosted several schools around Hamden, Connecticut with 2,476 people – nearly doubling its total attendance all season of 1,493.
“We started this in August to make today’s event not only a game and a win, so special,” said Bobcats’ head coach Tricia Fabbri. “I think four out of five of the MAAC games being played went off at 11 o’clock today. Former commissioner Rick Ensor decided that when we have no students on campus, a great way to promote our game was to have a kids-day game and an educational piece to it.”
With the added energy packing M&T Bank Arena, Quinnipiac’s first-year guard Karson Martin was able to feed off of it, leadinb the game with 17 points.
“That’s one thing we really tried to work on this season, this energy and bringing it as a team,” said Martin. “So whenever we have a chance to have that many people in the stands and have kids, they’re always happy. It just really brings out the energy in all of us because whenever they’re excited, we’re excited and the game flows really easily.
In just her second MAAC conference game, Martin sits in third place averaging 18.5 points per game. For a first-year with only eight career NCAA games at the Division 1 level under her belt, an added sense of pressure along with tight competition can set one back. However, Martin’s attitude and mindset have allowed her to be an offensive machine for Quinnipiac.
“I just love her moxie,” said Fabbri. “She is a kid that wants the ball in her hands to go make a play. Absolutely fearless and relentless on both sides of the ball.”
The relentlessness of Martin was on full display when she featured a go-ahead layup in the third quarter after first-year forward Anna Foley lost possession inside the paint.
After the score, she would convert on a contested layup to extend the Bobcat’s lead 25-21 with 5:26 remaining in the third quarter.
Foley also had a pivotal role in the game as she has started in all 11 games so far this season. Despite shooting only 20% from the field, she recorded nine rebounds, four assists, three steals and one block while making all four opportunities from the free throw line.
“They have to do it.” said Fabbri on Foley and Martin’s on-court presence. “They don’t have a choice and it’s honestly a responsibility that they want. That’s why we’re able to continue to build, make growth, be better and find a way to win. They want that leadership, that responsibility and that’s been talked about in meetings going into conference play.”
After entering halftime tied 17-17, the mindset was clear to how the Bobcat’s can walk out with a win.
“We were just in the locker room like ‘we wanted it’,” said sophomore forward Ella O’Donnell who finished with 13 points of her own. “Even though it was a crazy low scoring game and we were tied with them, we still felt like we were the dominant team.”
Throughout the entire game, defense was a common theme for both squads, as Saint Peter’s would turn the ball over 28 times while also holding the Bobcats to shooting 1-19 on three-pointers.
While forcing 28 turnovers, Quinnipiac would steal the ball 12 times. Fabbri mentioned how the successful defensive gameplan should be credited toward her staff.
“I have to credit (assistant coach) Jen Fay because we haven’t really instituted a 2-2-1 back to our man or zone,” said Fabbri. “We did that and that was really effective in creating the opportunities for us not only to turn them over, but to come down and find some scores or at least dominate the ball with possessions. I’ve got a great staff and I’ve got a great team to coach. We’re just inexperienced. So this is huge in terms of experience, always going forward every positive one you can have and we had a negative one against Yale and learn from it. But you can say we’re out there and we’re gonna grind.”
After starting the new year with a conference victory, the Bobcats will return to action on Saturday, Jan. 6 as the Manhattan Jaspers travel to Hamden in MAAC Conference play at 1 p.m.
