QU Men's Basketball Stuns Second-Seed Canisius 72-69 to Advance to MAAC Semifinals

Friday, March 2

Albany, NY

9:30 PM

Quinnipiac University

12-20

Canisius College

21-11

Quinnipiac

Canisius

Photo by: Gregory J. Fisher-SportsThroughT

QU Men's Basketball Stuns Second-Seed Canisius 72-69 to Advance to MAAC Semifinals

3/2/2018 11:36:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: QU Athletic Communications

ALBANY, N.Y. - Freshman guard Rich Kelly (Shelton, Conn.) had 16 points including a pair of key driving lay-ups late and Cameron Young added his fourth straight double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds as the seventh-seeded Quinnipiac men's basketball team upset second-seeded Canisius 72-69 on Friday night in the quarterfinals of the MAAC Tournament. Canisius had three shot attempts on its final possession, including two tying three-pointers, with the final one missing as the horn sounded.

The Bobcats will have a day off before facing the Niagara-Fairfield winner on Sunday in the semifinals at 9:30 p.m., their first semifinal appearance since 2014, their first season in the MAAC.

SCORE
#7 Quinnipiac 72, #2 Canisius 69

LOCATION
Times Union Center / Albany, N.Y.

RECORDS
Quinnipiac 12-20 // Canisius 21-11

HEAD COACH BAKER DUNLEAVY
"This was obviously a gratifying win for us, and I feel like I say this all the time, but it wouldn't be a Quinnipiac basketball game if it didn't come back to the final moments. I was really excited with the way our guys handled things down the stretch defensively, we got multiple stops when things were going against us, and kept defending with great poise".

GAME NOTES

Freshman guard Rich Kelly (Shelton, Conn.) had a driving layup with 1:12 to play to put the Bobcats ahead 68-62, and after Canisius got to within 70-69, Kelly had another driving layup to make it 72-69 with 10 seconds left.
Canisius had three shots on their final possession, including two tying three-point attempts, but missed both as the Bobcats held on. It was the seventh time this season that Quinnipiac has won a game when their opponents have missed tying or winning shots in the final two seconds (they also suffered one defeat when Colorado made a winning buzzer-beater).
With the score tied 58-58, Quinnipiac used an 8-2 run, starting with a go-ahead three-pointer from freshman forward Jacob Rigoni (Adelaide, Australia), his fourth of the game.
After Kelly found junior forward Abdulai Bundu (Upper Marlboro, Md.) cutting to the hoop for a layup to make it 63-60, junior guard Aaron Robinson knocked down a three-pointer (Takoma Park, Md.) to give Quinnipiac its largest lead at 66-60.
Senior guard Cameron Young (Los Angeles, Calif.) knocked down both ends of a one-and-one to give Quinnipiac a 70-66 lead with 42 seconds left, but Jermaine Crumpton answered with a three-point play to cut it to one, before Kelly's big driving basket.
Quinnipiac trailed 36-30 at the half, but started quickly to pull ahead 40-38 on a basket from Young.
A 14-2 Canisius run gave the Golden Griffins a 52-42 lead on a Jermaine Crumpton basket.
The Bobcats came right back with a 10-0 run starting with a Young three and ending with a Robinson three to even it back up 52-52 with 8:55 left.
Canisius won both regular season meetings from the Bobcats on their way to a regular season co-championship in the MAAC at 15-3.
Rigoni had four three-pointers, giving him 73 this season, moving him aloe into second on Quinnipiac's all-time single season list at the Division I level.
Cameron Young's 17 points and 11 rebounds marked his fourth straight double-double.
Young's 17 points also give him 598 in his career, only nine shy of the single-season school record at the Division I level.
Jermaine Crumpton finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds for Canisius, which shared the regular season championship with Rider. Rider and Canisius both lost in the quarterfinal round today (Rider fell to Saint Peter's), leaving nobody seeded higher than third in the field.

QUINNIPIAC STAT LEADERS
Points: Cameron Young 17, Rich Kelly 16, Jacob Rigoni 12
Rebounds: Cameron Young 11, Abdulai Bundu 10
Assists: Rich Kelly 5

CANISIUS STAT LEADERS
Points: Jermaine Crumpton 22
Rebounds: Jermaine Crumpton 11
Assists: Malik Johnson 7