Quinnipiac University
Iona
Bobcats Come-From-Behind to Defeat Iona, 79-72; QU Women's Basketball Claims MAAC Regular Season Championship
2/22/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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- MAAC Women's Basketball Homepage
NEW ROCHELLE, New York – Life at the top of the conference is a difficult road to navigate and on Sunday afternoon Quinnipiac was tested for 40 minutes. Quinnipiac came into the Hynes Athletic Center expecting a battle and the Bobcats landed themselves in a heavyweight bout as the Iona Gaels came ready to play. Every shot was contested, the atmosphere was playoff-like and great players were hitting buckets throughout but in the end, Quinnipiac proved their metal once again with a 79-72 comeback victory over Iona.
Quinnipiac (25-3, 17-0 MAAC) wins their 15th straight and also claim the MAAC Regular Season Championship outright, the Bobcats' second in three years as QU captured the 2012-13 NEC Regular Season title in their final year in the conference. Winners in 22 of the last 23 games, Quinnipiac is starting to be tested as the MAAC Tournament approaches but luckily for the Bobcats, QU has a full arsenal of weapons and this day featured Val Driscoll (Stoughton, Mass.) prominently.
Knowing she had a mismatch and size advantage in the interior, Coach Tricia Fabbri relied on her 6-foot-4 center to get the job done and Driscoll certainly didn't back down from the challenge. Going against the short but tenacious 5-foot-11 Joy Adams all throughout, Driscoll posted a career-high 22 points and 10 rebounds which is good enough for her fifth career double-double. She finished 8-for-13 from the floor and 6-for-6 at the free throw line, while also matching her season-high with four blocks. Driscoll's effort largely on the offensive glass (seven offensive rebounds) created enough open looks to make the Gaels pay dearly.
Samantha Guastella (Red Bank, New Jersey) struggled out of the gates as she went into the halftime locker room with just three points (1-6 FG, 1-5 3FG) but the as the common saying goes, "shooters keep shooting." Unfazed by the poor first half, Guastella buried 4-of-7 attempts in the second half, including 2-of-3 from deep and 4-for-4 at the line, to finish with 14 seconds half points. For the game, Guastella's stat line included 17 points, eight rebounds, two assists and one block.
When her team needed a score in the first half to keep the deficit within reach, Jasmine Martin (Sicklerville, New Jersey) came up big with 16 points (10 in first half) to go along with five rebounds and three steals. Trailing by as many as 11 points in the first half, Martin's 10-point stanza played a key role in the final outcome.
Both Nikoline Ostergaard (11 points, eight rebounds, four assists) and Gillian Abshire (three points, eight steals, seven rebounds, four assists) fought through full court pressure from the Gaels and steadied the Bobcat attack in this key victory. For Ostergaard this marked her fifth straight game scoring double figures while Abshire matched her career-high in steals and season-high in rebounds.
The final outcome may shot the Bobcats taking the seven-point victory, but the score and play favored Iona throughout a majority of the first half into the second stanza.
Both teams traded punches in the early going as neither side led by more than five points before the 8:12 mark. Quinnipiac's largest lead in the opening half was 7-2 in the opening three minutes but the Gaels pushed back by forcing turnovers which led to easy looks on the other end. The key Iona run started at the 9:49 mark as a Joy Adams layup tied the score, 20-20, and helped start a 13-0 run in which the Gaels held Quinnipiac scoreless for over five minutes.
Armed with their largest lead of the game, 35-24, Iona allowed the Bobcats get right back in the game as QU put together a crucial 7-0 run of their own at the end of the first half as Quinnipiac trailed the Gaels, 35-31, after one half of play.
The flip in momentum carried over into the second half as the Iona lead was quickly erased as Driscoll banged in a layup to give the Bobcats their first lead, 39-37, in over 13 minutes of play.
Even with the Quinnipiac push back, Iona had an answer of their own as this seesaw affair took another turn as Iona would hold the lead for seven straight minutes, including one point where the lead was as high as seven points.
But as has been proven time and time again this season, Quinnipiac seems to feed off the energy in close games as the game-deciding stretch started at the 8:31 mark and would last until there was only 1:13 remaining. During that 7:18 span, Quinnipiac held the second-highest scoring offense in the MAAC (1st in field goal percentage) without any points and reeled off a 16-0 run that proved to be the difference in the end. The Bobcats' lockdown defense not only held Iona to an 0-for-10 shooting performance down the stretch but the Gaels also turned the ball over six times in front of the pesky QU defense.
On the other end of the floor, Quinnipiac first turned to Driscoll who scored four straight points to first give the Bobcats a lead in which they would never relinquish, 60-58.
Maria Napolitano (Cincinnati, Ohio), who saw a good deal of playing time down the stretch due to her defense on Martinez, rattled in a jumper before Guastella hit a crowd-silencing three-pointer to give QU a nine-point lead, 67-58.
The QU lead grew to as many as 13 points down the stretch but the Gaels made it interesting as the lead wilted down to just six with 33 seconds remaining but it was Guastella and Ostergaard to the rescue as the pair each sank two straight free throws to ice away the Bobcats' 79-72 victory.
In a game that features one of the nation's best scorers on the other end, often times it takes a total team defensive approach to buy-in and the Bobcats did just that on Sunday. Facing the nation's fourth-leading scorer Damika Martinez (23.5 PPG coming into play), Quinnipiac limited her open looks and frustrated Iona's key offensive threat. Even though Martinez finished with 29 points, those points came on 28 field goal attempts (11-28 FG, 39.3 FG%) while she also finished just 2-for-8 from long range to go along with four turnovers. The team defense on Martinez, to go along with the efforts on Joy Adams (6-14 FG) and Aaliyah Robinson (4-12 FG), the Gaels' top three scorers combined to shoot 38.9 percent (21-for-54) from the floor and 33.3 percent (5-for-15) from three point range
Quinnipiac continues its rigorous end to the 2014-15 regular season with a Tuesday road tilt at Manhattan with tip-off scheduled for 7:00 PM. The Tuesday night game was originally supposed to be held on Monday, Jan. 26 but had to be rescheduled due to winter conditions.
Contact: Maxx McNall; maxx.mcnall@quinnipiac.edu
