Maria Napolitano Matches Career-High, Leading QU Women’s Basketball Past Vermont, 77-65

Saturday, November 28

Patrick Gymnasium - Burlington, VT

5:00 PM

Quinnipiac University

4-2

Vermont

1-5

Quinnipiac

Vermont

Maria Napolitano Matches Career-High, Leading QU Women’s Basketball Past Vermont, 77-65

11/28/2015 8:20:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: QU Sports Information

BURLINGTON, Vermont – For the second straight game, the Quinnipiac women's basketball team absorbed several blows in the opening stanza as Vermont mirrored Georgetown's Friday night showing in building a 12-point first quarter lead. Eyeballing a second straight loss, the Bobcats buckled down on the defensive end and drained several key three-pointers to walk away victorious, 77-65, over Vermont in the TD Bank Classic Consolation Game from Patrick Gymnasium.

Maria Napolitano (Cincinnati, Ohio) had her A game going from the start as matched her career-high with 20 points on 6-of-13 shooting and 7-for-8 at the free throw line. Napolitano rounded out her second career 20-point scoring night with three assists, two blocks (tied career-high) and two rebounds in 23 minutes.

Brittany Johnson (Pickerington, Ohio) played the best game of her young career as the sophomore guard notched a career-best 10 points on 5-of-8 from the floor. She also added three rebounds and two assists in 21 minutes.

Carly Fabbri (Stratford, Connecticut) and Edel Thornton (Cork, Ireland) tallied nine points apiece, each draining three three-pointers. Adily Martucci (five steals) and Paula Strautmane (three blocks) both impacted the game greatly on the defense end as each finished with a respective career-high.

Hitting on 6-of-7 attempts from the floor, including a perfect 5-for-5 from three, Vermont (1-5) looked the better side throughout the first seven minutes of play as the Catamounts' desperation for a win was evident in the early stages. After watching Georgetown build a 22-point lead in the first half last night, Coach Fabbri's group dealt with the adversity such better against the Catamounts as the Bobcats closed the half on a 27-7 run.

Fueled by suffocating defense that saw Quinnipiac force Vermont into 19 first half turnovers, Napolitano capitalized on the offensive end. The senior guard had it going all night as she drained her lone three-pointer of the contest and followed with two great finds, first to Brittany Johnson and second to Sarah Shewan (Russell, Ontario) for a three-pointer, that started the dominating run that extended into the second quarter.

Quinnipiac took complete control in the second quarter, outscoring Vermont by a margin of 22-7. Brittany Martin's (Sicklerville, New Jersey) three-pointer tied the score at 23-23 and Napolitano drained a jumper at the wing that gave Quinnipiac a 30-28 advantage for a lead the Bobcats wouldn't relinquish the rest of the game.

Heading into the second half ahead, 36-28, Johnson continued to impact the game on the offensive end as she hit a layup in traffic and then found Strautmane at the rim for another two points to open the third quarter. Thornton's three-pointer from the wing gave the Bobcats' their largest lead of the game at 14 points before UVM mounted their comeback attempt.

As Vermont locked down on defense to hold the Bobcats without a field goal for 7:26, the Catamounts cut into the lead and whittled it down to just three points at 55-52 with 7:33 remaining. But as soon as Thornton broke the Bobcats' cold streak with a three-pointer at the top of the key, the three's began to rain in as Fabbri followed with back-to-back makes from long range and Martucci continued the surge with a 15-foot jumper in transition to give Quinnipiac the 63-52 advantage.

Free throws loomed large down the stretch as Vermont started fouling the Bobcats north of two minutes remaining but Quinnipiac met the challenge hitting nine straight makes at the charity stripe and closing 12-for-14 at the line to finish off the 77-65 road win.

Turnovers loomed large as Quinnipiac cashed in with 21 points off Vermont turnovers compared to just five points off 14 Bobcat turnovers for the Catamounts.
After six non-conference games and a 4-2 record to start the 2015-16 season, Quinnipiac begins MAAC play with a huge matchup away from home as the Bobcats visit Marist in a 2015 MAAC Championship rematch on Thursday, Dec. 3 at 7 PM.