It’s not every day a team allows a 20-0 run and finds a way to win the basketball game. And yet, it was one of those days for Quinnipiac on Friday night in Hamden, as the Bobcats pulled off an intense, come-from-behind win over the Rider Broncs 88-84 in front of a great crowd at M&T Bank Arena.
“It’s good to know that we have the fight and have the grit to go out and pull off a win like that,” graduate student guard Matt Balanc said.
The three Bobcat captains — Balanc, Savion Lewis and senior forward Paul Otieno –- led the charge, each playing some of their best basketball of the season all in the same game.
“It’s great when your three captains can step up and lead you to a win like this,” head coach Tom Pecora said. “Everyone in the room, if they aren’t true believers, they are now.”
Balanc scored a season high 29 points on 10-20 shooting from the field, splashing five three pointers — each one more clutch than the next. Lewis had a career best 18 assists, shattering the previous program record for assists in a single game (12). Otieno also had a career high in scoring, putting up 24 points on an efficient 10-for-12 from the field.
“Our offense is based on movement,” Balanc said. “When we’re all moving and helping (Lewis) out, it helps him find us and makes it easier on him.”
Both sides came out firing in the first half, and seven minutes in, the Bobcats led 16-11. The next six minutes, however, the Broncs went on that aforementioned run where they scored 20 consecutive points and quickly led 31-16.
“We were able to hang around and hang around and keep grinding,” Pecora said. “Obviously the pressure got to them.”
The Bobcats never gave up despite the big deficit. They kept on chipping away and thanks to a 12-0 run early in the second half, they took their first lead since that 16-11 mark.
After allowing Rider to bring it up the court without any pressure in the first half, Pecora inserted a full court press that really messed with the Broncs’ tempo, starting a stretch of three consecutives travels in the back court.
“We have a couple of different presses with different rotations, so by doing that it got us a few steals and kind of threw them off a little bit,” Pecora said.
While the press was stopping Rider from scoring, the connection between Lewis and Otieno was heating up. Four times in the final 10 minutes, Lewis found his cutting big man for an easy layup off a pick-and-roll.
“Keep chipping at it, play by play,” Otieno said. “Next play mentality, that’s what won us the game.”
Even after blowing a big lead, Rider kept its foot on the gas pedal, making it a close game down the stretch. Mervin James, the preseason player of the year in the MAAC, had 31 points and was clearly the best player for the Broncs, scoring possession after possession to keep them in it.
“James was (preseason) player of the year and he looked like it tonight,” Pecora said.
Some late, clutch free throws from Balanc and Lewis increased the cushion to four before a steal by junior guard Doug Young set up a fastbreak slam for Balanc with seven seconds left to seal the deal for the Bobcats, who moved to 2-1 in MAAC play.
“Me, personally, I feel like we are the best team in the MAAC,” Otieno said. “We have great depth with Matt and Sav too and me too.”
Up next for Quinnipiac is another MAAC home game as the Bobcats welcome the Manhattan Jaspers up to the York Hill campus at the M&T Bank Arena for a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. on Jan. 7.
