Three-Peat! Women's Basketball Dominates Marist for Third Straight MAAC Championship

Monday, March 11

Albany, NY

2:30 PM

Quinnipiac University

26-6

Marist

23-10

Marist

Quinnipiac

Photo by: Rob Rasmussen / P8Photos.com

Three-Peat! Women's Basketball Dominates Marist for Third Straight MAAC Championship

3/11/2019 4:14:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Jen Fay Scores Game-High 25 Points in Double-Double Lead Bobcats in Title Win

By: QU Athletic Communications

ALBANY, N.Y. – The Quinnipiac women's basketball team continued its run of dominance in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Monday afternoon as the Bobcats won their third consecutive MAAC Basketball Championship with an 81-51 victory over the No. 3 seed Marist Red Foxes.

Quinnipiac's MAAC Championship is its fourth overall MAAC Championship in the past six seasons and fifth conference championship in program history. The Bobcats 30-point victory was the largest margin of victory in a MAAC Championship game in league history.

Jen Fay (Lynbrook, New York) scored a season-high 25 points and recorded her third double-double by pulling down 13 rebounds on her way to being named the Tournament's Most Outstanding Player for a second consecutive season. Fay also became the first player in program history to win four conference championships in a career.

Aryn McClure (Springfield Gardens, New York) finished the game with 18 points and eight rebounds while Edel Thornton (Gurranabraher, Ireland) finished with 16 points and Paula Strautmane (Riga, Latvia) scored 10 points for the Bobcats.

McClure and Strautmane were named to the 2019 MAAC All-Tournament team in addition to Fay for their spectacular performances over their three games.

SCORE
Quinnipiac 81 // Marist 51

RECORDS
Quinnipiac (26-6) | Marist (23-10)

LOCATION
Times Union Center | Albany, N.Y.

BOBCATS STATISTICAL LEADERS

Points: Fay (25)
Rebounds: Fay (13)
Assists: Strautmane/Thornton (5)
Steals: Fay/McClure/Warfel (2)
Blocks: Strautmane (2)

GAME SUMMARY

Marist battled through much of the first quarter on hot shooting as the Red Foxes shot 61.5 percent from the floor and were 4 for 6 on 3-pointers
The Red Foxes took a 20-18 lead into the break after a last-second jumper from the Bobcats' McClure while Fay had nine points on three 3-pointers in the quarter
Including McClure's jumper to end the quarter, the Bobcats went on a 10-0 run in a span of 4:09 to take a six-point lead and the Bobcats never looked back
Fay led the Bobcats with seven points in the quarter while Thornton had six and McClure added five to take a nine-point lead into halftime
In the second and third quarters, the Bobcats outscored the Red Foxes 43-22 to take a commanding 20-point lead
Fay had another seven points and Thornton knocked down two more 3-pointers as the Bobcats to pace the third-quarter scoring
Quinnipiac continued to add to its lead in the fourth quarter as Thornton's layup with 4:30 left in the period gave the Bobcats a 25-point lead
Quinnipiac scored eight of the final nine points of the game to finish with the 30-point victory
The Bobcats held Marist without a field goal over the final 4:17 of Monday's championship game

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

Quinnipiac's MAAC Championship is its third straight and fourth overall since joining the conference prior to the 2013-14 season
The Bobcats have won five conference championships since joining the Division I ranks, adding their Northeast Conference Championship in 2012-13
Quinnipiac's 30-point victory over Marist was the largest margin of victory in a MAAC Women's Basketball Championship game in league history
Quinnipiac has competed in the MAAC Championship game in all six seasons since joining the league in 2013-14, playing Marist four times and are now 3-1 against the Red Foxes in MAAC Championship games
The Bobcats extended their winning streak to 21 games on the season, which remains the second-longest winning streak in program history behind Baylor
Quinnipiac also extended its winning streak to 52 games against MAAC opponents, now the 10^th longest in NCAA history and one away from tying Baylor's 53-game winning streak against Big 12 opponents from Feb. 23, 2011 through Jan. 11, 2014
Quinnipiac completed its fourth undefeated season in conference history with its championship Monday and third undefeated conference season since joining the MAAC
The Bobcats have been perfect against MAAC competition in back-to-back seasons
Fay became the first Quinnipiac women's basketball player in program history to win four conference championships in a career
Fay was named the Tournament's Most Valuable Player for a second straight year after recording her third double-double of the season with a season-high 25 points and 13 rebounds
The Bobcats knocked down a season-high 11 3-pointers in Monday's championship game and shot nearly 40 percent from beyond the arc
Fay and Thornton combined to knock down nine of the 11 3-pointers as both recorded season-highs with five and four made 3-pointers, respectively
Thornton's 16 points were tied for her career-high which she set at Central Michigan on Dec. 21, 2017 and she also had a career-high six rebounds to go with her five-assist performance
McClure's 18 points are her most since a 22-point game against Rider on Feb. 3
Strautmane filled the stat sheet once again as she totaled 10 points with seven rebounds, including five offensive rebounds, as well as five assists
Strautmane's seven rebounds gives her 713 in her career, passing Rosemarye Brown '89 for the eighth most rebounds in program history
Strautmane also had two blocks as she passes Francine Perry '85 for the third-most blocks in program history with 205 while McClure broke a tie with Samantha Guastella '15 with a block on Monday to move into fifth all-time in program history with 180

UP NEXT

The Bobcats await their NCAA Tournament opponent during the NCAA Women's Basketball Selection Show on Monday, March 18 at 7 p.m.
The NCAA Women's Basketball Selection Show will be televised on ESPN.