QU Women’s Basketball Battles Through Offensive Woes to Defeat Fairfield, 60-55

Monday, January 16

Hamden, CT

2:00 PM

Quinnipiac University

15-3, 8-0MAAC

Fairfield

8-9, 5-3MAAC

Fairfield

Quinnipiac

QU Women’s Basketball Battles Through Offensive Woes to Defeat Fairfield, 60-55

1/16/2017 6:08:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Bobcats Overcome 32.1 Percent Shooting and 10-Point Second Quarter Deficit to Win 24th Straight MAAC Regular Season Game

By: QU Sports Information

HAMDEN, Connecticut – It's tough to envision a more trying opening to a game in recent memory for the Quinnipiac women's basketball program but like the Bobcats have done all season, the team battled through a near quarter full of missed shots to pull away from Fairfield late and walk away with the 60-55 victory.

Quinnipiac's seventh straight win (24^th consecutive victory in MAAC regular season action), boosts the Bobcats up to 15-3 on the season while taking a two-game lead in the conference standings at 8-0 in MAAC play. Fairfield drops down to 8-9 overall and 5-3 in the MAAC as the Stags watched their four-game win streak come to an end.

Suffering through an extended cold spell early, the Bobcats suffered from a very poor shooting effort in the opening quarter as Quinnipiac missed their first 14 shots from the floor, finishing just 6.3 percent (1-16 FG) from the floor in the opening 10 minutes. Quinnipiac's first field goal didn't come until there was 13 seconds remaining in the first quarter. The blowback from one of the longest droughts for the Bobcats in years was softened significantly with an impressive 40-minute defensive outing that saw the MAAC's top scoring defense in Quinnipiac hold the Stags to just 13 points in the first stanza and only 55 for the game.

After a lackluster six points in the opening stanza, Quinnipiac responded with a much-improved effort the rest of the way as the Bobcats shot 43.2 percent (16-37 FG) from the floor for the final three quarters of play. A 17-point second quarter showing saw Quinnipiac can four three-pointers, including an impressive 3-for-3 showing for Adily Martucci (Waterford, Connecticut) from downtown in the second period alone. Cutting the deficit to just two points on a pair of occasions, Quinnipiac mustered enough on the defensive end to trail by just five (28-23) heading into the halftime break despite a 7-for-31 shooting clip (22.9 percent) in the opening 20 minutes.

A defensive battle all throughout the first half quickly turned into a high-flying offensive display at the start of the third quarter as Quinnipiac used an 8-0 run over a span of 2:31 to take their first lead of the game, 31-30. Back-to-back three-pointers from Carly Fabbri (Stratford, Connecticut) and Edel Thornton (Gurranabraher, Ireland) capped by a jumper from Martucci gave the Bobcats a lead for the first time after trailing by as many as 10 points just over 10 minutes prior to the eight-point swing.

Fairfield, however, responded with a 9-2 run of their own to reclaim a six-point advantage which ultimately led into a 42-42 deadlock heading into the fourth after a see-sawing third period. Quinnipiac continued to rely on the three-point shot as the Bobcats sank seven of their nine made three-pointers in the second and third quarters combined.
Both defenses continued to dominate into the final frame as Quinnipiac held Fairfield to their lowest-scoring quarter of the game (13 points) while shooting just 5-for-17 (29.4 percent) from the floor after the Stags had shot an impressive 17-for-36 (47.2 percent) through the first three quarters combined.

That lockdown defensive mindset was ultimately backed up by a game-deciding 6-0 run over a span of one minute as Jen Fay (Lynbrook, New York) hit a three-pointer in transition from the wing followed up by an Aryn McClure (Springfield Gardens, New York) free throw and jumper from Paula Strautmane (Riga, Latvia) that gave the Bobcats a seven-point advantage (biggest lead of the game) with 5:11 remaining.

While Quinnipiac's offense struggled down the stretch (0 field goals in final 5:11 of play), the Bobcats capitalized from the free throw line as the Stags were able to cut the lead down to three with 31 seconds remaining but a solid 7-for-8 showing from the charity stripe in the final minute proved enough for the five-point Bobcat victory.

Playing in front of a large crowd (981), Quinnipiac saw all 11 Bobcats to enter the game score at least one point despite the below-average shooting performance. Martucci led the way for the Bobcats with 13 points while Fay added 12 as the pair combined to shoot 6-for-12 from three-point range. Strautmane chipped in nine points to go along with seven rebounds (four offensive), two assists and two blocks while Morgan Manz (Southbury, Connecticut) made her return to the lineup after missing three games due to illness and tallied eight points and five rebounds.

The talented Fairfield squad leaned heavily on their top-three leading scorers as Casey Smith (15 points, seven rebounds, five assists), Samantha Cooper (12 points, 11 rebounds) and Kelsey Carey (11 points, five rebounds, three steals) combined to produce 69.1 percent of the Stags' total points on the afternoon.

Quinnipiac heads into a three-game week with a road matchup at Monmouth on Thursday morning. Playing Monmouth on their annual Kids' Day game, the longtime conference rivals are set to tip at 11:30 AM from the OceanFirst Bank Center.