It’s déjà vu for the women’s basketball team yet again — another dominant MAAC win to keep their undefeated in-conference streak alive. While it wasn’t necessarily the prettiest, a 20-plus point victory is nothing to hang your head about, especially considering their next opponent.
The Bobcats had yet to play Siena up until Thursday night — something quite unusual, especially considering how close the team was to MAAC tournament time. Unfamiliarity from Quinnipiac’s side showed early, the Saints’ fast-paced offense cutting like a knife through the defense. Sienna led for the vast majority of the first quarter, something the Bobcats aren’t used to.
At the end of the first quarter, Siena had 12 total points — 10 of those coming inside the paint. “What they run is a little bit different from what we’ve seen,” head coach Tricia Fabbri noted postgame when asked about early obstacles. “They had some drives and easy buckets going to the rim, so our defense wasn’t there off the screen,” despite the struggles defending inside, though, Quinnipiac still had a handful of positives to take away from an uncharacteristic quarter.
The Bobcats forced five different Saints to turn the ball over in the opening quarter, making their defensive presence known to every opposing player on the court. While the Bobcats’ lead was only three at the end of one, back-to-back threes from Sydney Ryan and Jackie Grisdale proved to be the catalyst to Quinnipiac’s outburst.
Entering the game forward Anna Foley was just five points shy of joining the exclusive 1,000 point club — something two of her teammates, Jackie Grisdale and Sydney Ryan, had already joined earlier this season. In the midst of a strong second quarter, Foley wedged herself into the triple threat position. The junior then did a signature jab and pop from the right elbow — nothing but nylon.
Foley’s first collegiate points came inside the paint, and now the shot that immortalized her in Bobcat history came just outside it. “It was a great atmosphere, I’m really happy to get it here and have my teammates support me,” Foley said with a smile postgame, but she was more concerned with the overall success of her squad. “We talked yesterday in practice about legacy, about putting our team on that banner,” Foley noted, “On the horizon, looking at the other more important banner, MAAC tournament, NCAA tournament, so that’s really what the focus is on.”
After a quick, thunderous applause from the Hamden crowd, the focus was quickly set back to the hardwood. Jackie Grisdale and Ella O’Donnell were X-factors for the Bobcats all night, Grisdale putting up ten points and O’Donnell coming a rebound shy of a double-double.
Postgame, Fabbri had unwavering praise for her two veteran leaders, who have served as mentors all season long. “There’s not a better two-way player in the league than Jackie Grisdale and I think Ella O’Donnell is a very close second,” she said, without a sense of doubt dripping from her voice. There’s no denying the sheer impact both girls have had on the Bobcats this season — both on and off the court.
O’Donnell had a very strong third quarter, slowly separating the scoreboard further and further from a gritty Siena team. “Honestly I think it was the momentum from my teammates that they got us going…” O’Donnell said, that was, until Foley chimed in, “We trust her to keep making plays when it counts.” This unity is the kind of factor that people don’t mention as often when talking about championship teams.
The teamwork and chemistry really started to show in the third — ball movement was impeccable, and after finally starting to tire out the Saints defense, the Bobcats were able to make a few defensive stops and turn them into fast break layups. “It’s always been a part of our formula for success,” Fabbri said when asked about assist to turnover ratio, “you’re going to see that we have great point guards that take care of the ball… we’re not giving a team more possessions,” which is extremely true considering the Bobcats have the nation’s leader in assist to turnover ratio in Paige Girardi on their squad.
By the time the last buzzer sounded, both the statsheet and final score reflected a dominant win from Quinnipiac — something that wasn’t reflected as strongly throughout the first half of the matchup. “That’s teams that are built for championships. They’re not rattled. They get settled out of the timeout and great execution on both sides of the floor,” Fabbri said. The Bobcats ability to snap themselves out of a cold stretch is a very undervalued part of basketball — a winning trait in championship teams.
Now the Bobcats turn their heads to the final major test of the regular season — a rematch with Fairfield on Saturday. While Quinnipiac took round one in Stags country a few weeks ago, there’s no doubt a team like Fairfield will be ready for another round. “It’s a big game. We love the rivalry, but let’s not blow it out of proportion, let’s have fun,” Foley said, “We beat them before, we can do it again… these are the games we were made for, that we look forward to.”
