The Quinnipiac Bobcats men’s basketball team defeated the CCNY Beavers by a final score of 112-52, improving to 3-2 on the season. Without star forward Amarri Monroe in the lineup, the supporting cast of the Bobcats showed up in different ways, contributing to a morale-boosting victory. The Bobcats scored the second-most points in a game in their program’s Division I history.
“You want to make sure that your guys handle the game the right way and still get something out of it. I think we handled it pretty well. Especially being a younger, immature team at times that’s still growing together,” associate head coach Shaun Morris said about the performance.
A flurry from the Beavers had them out to a 9-4 lead, as they forced the Bobcats into a tough situation before the first media timeout. CCNY senior guard Justin Morety was finding his shot early and hit some tough ones to get his team going. However, the Bobcats flipped a switch on both sides of the ball, and did not look back from that point on, finding easy transition points, close-range shots, and a few powerful dunks.
Quinnipiac had multiple players with great games individually that ultimately contributed to the team success, with first year guard Tai Turnage having a stellar all-around performance, finishing with nine points, 11 assists, six rebounds, and four steals, showing his two-way talent.
“Just going into practice every day, working hard and making sure I’m sharp, and it’s starting to show,” Turnage said of the contributing factors to his performance.
The Bobcats also got plenty of help from outside the arc as well, with Samson Reilly hitting nine threes in the matchup, tying the Quinnipiac Division I record for most three pointers in a game.
“I work for it every day. I think any guy on the team will tell you how much work I put in, how much I care about this university and team as a whole,” Reilly said of his preparation.
The Bobcats also enjoyed a well-played offensive outing from first year forward Keith McKnight, who finished 9-9 from the field, with tough finishes at the rim all night.
“It’s better not playing with the ball…So it’s really beneficial having guys that can see the floor and see me cutting.” McKnight said.
Finally, an additional cherry on top to this performance was the play of Quinnipiac first year forward Christopher Skenderi, who finished with 13 points on 5-5 shooting and 3-3 from the three-point line, in only eight minutes of action.
“That was amazing, honestly, because Chris is my guy, known him my whole life, so just seeing him out there and having fun, that was amazing,” Turnage said of Skenderi’s performance.
Quinnipiac will now head to Pittsburgh to take on the ACC’s Pitt Panthers on Nov. 23 at 5 p.m.
