Photo courtesy: Quinnipiac Athletics
The Quinnipiac University women’s basketball team remained perfect in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play on Monday morning, defeating last year’s MAAC regular season champion Iona Gaels. Despite shooting a dismal 31 percent from the field in the first half, including just 1-for-16 beyond the arc (6.3 percent), the Bobcats stayed true to their brand of basketball, exuded poise down the stretch, and displayed confidence in their shooting, en route to 53 second half points. The 85-74 victory is the 11th straight win for the Bobcats, putting them at 21-3 overall and 13-0 in the MAAC. Iona drops to 12-10 overall and 9-5 in MAAC play. My five takeaways from Monday’s game are below.
Gold Rush? No Rush down the stretch
Experience, experience, experience. I just cannot say it enough. When you have a starting lineup of four seniors and one graduate student, winning ball games will come easily due to the amount of late game situations they have been apart of. The four seniors have already been apart of a 30-win team, went undefeated in the conference regular season, won a conference championship and have played in an NCAA Tournament. Not much more can be asked from a mid-major basketball team, and to do it twice in three years would be unprecedented.
What I am most impressed with is the unselfish play. While the entire team relishes the big moment, only five are able to play on the court. Each play ends with a congratulatory high five or a, “Get it next time kid.” These players do not care who takes or makes the big shots. The common goal to win on a daily basis, far exceeds any personal achievement.
“That’s what is the beauty of this team that everyone is ready,” Fabbri said. “It’s not like you’re hoping someone that hasn’t played to go in and play some big minutes down the stretch, these young ladies are poised to go in whenever needed, to go out and make a play to help the team succeed. And you saw that today.”
She continued:
“We’re going to coach the game to win. And whatever we feel, what I feel, we need to do to win the game, is what we’re going to do. And I thought the Gold Rush came in and really gave us lifts early in the first half and in the second half. It just was my decision to go down the stretch, what we needed to do to win that game, this particular game today and we did get out of it and came away with a nice victory. “
Team defense continues to improve
“Speed” is one word that doesn’t describe this bunch, but depth, heady, tall, strong, and smooth all are. And this Quinnipiac team is playing to its strengths. All season the Bobcats have faced some of the nation’s leading scorers. Here’s how they’ve faired:
Nov. 15: Army – Kelsey Minato (22.8 PPG) – 10th in the nation
Quinnipiac holds her to 18 points on 5-of-18 from the field (27 percent) and 2-for-9 (22 percent) from 3.
Nov. 18: Hampton – Malia Tate-DeFreitas (21.3 PPG) – 14th in the nation
Quinnipiac holds her to 20 points on 6-of-27 shooting (22 percent) and 0-for-4 from beyond the arc. They also forced her into committing seven turnovers, the most in a game in this season.
Dec. 15: Albany- Shereesha Richards (21.2 PPG) 15th in the nation
The Bobcats held Shereesha Richards to an uncomfortable 17 points on 6-of-15 shooting. Quinnipiac clamped down on Richards, holding her scoreless in the final 7:51 of the game.
Monday morning was no different. Damika Martinez, the nation’s third-leading scorer (24.2 ppg) was held to 19 points, just six in the second half on 4-of-13 shooting and 0-for-2 from 3. Last year she torched Quinnipiac in all three games averaging more than 24 points per game shooting 40 percent from the field and more than 52 percent from 3.
“It was a really great combination of Nik Ostergaard and Maria Napolitano and who ever switched onto her,” Fabbri said. “But the defense individually on Martinez was really tight and we don’t want her to get shots off. We want team defense around her when she puts the ball down and we we’re really able to do that very well today.
Point guard “Boo” Abshire detailed the gameplan.
“It was just a real focus on Damika and particularly team defense and making sure it wasn’t just the person guarding her,” she said. “But everyone helping and helping the helper.”
Commander in Chief: “Boo” Abshire
Asbhire is making a strong case as the best point guard in mid-major basketball. She is at the top of a few national statistics and her play as the floor general has guided this team to dominance in the MAAC. Her ability to see the floor and know where her teammates are at all times is crucial. Another thing I like is her ability to use ball-fakes. After knocking down a jump shot, whether it be a two or three-point basket, Abshire uses pump-fakes and ball-fakes to separate herself from opposing defenses to orchestrate high percentage shots. Here are a few eye-popping stats.
-Abshire leads the country in assists to turnover ratio (4.1)
-Since Jan. 11, Abshire has posted no turnovers in seven of nine games giving her 51 assists to just five turnovers during that stretch
-She hasn’t committed a turnover in 102:53. (The first half of the Saint Peter’s game on Feb. 1)
– Averaging 6.4 APG in conference play (second-most in the conference)
Fabbri was decisive on whether Abshire is the best point guard in the MAAC.
“Oh absolutely, in my opinion,” she said. “That is vintage “Boo” Abshire today. Plus she hit a couple 3’s and we needed that one that banked.”
“I got a lot of minutes today so that was nice and I was really, really hopeful that they would keep knocking down shots that I was dishing to them,” the senior said. “When you get into that comfort zone of knowing where your teammates are going to be because I play with them everyday, you just know where they are going to be.”
Steady Sam
Sam Guastella is playing at potential MAAC Player-of-the-Year level. The senior from Red Bank, New Jersey is averaging 13.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and two blocks in fewer than 25 minutes per game. Shooting nearly 47 percent from the field as a predominantly wing and perimeter player is tremendous. She has been a constant force at both ends of the court this year and continues to hit big shot after big shot. Despite making only one of her four first half three-point attempts, Guastella was ready out of the intermission connecting on 5-of-6 from long range.
What Fabbri had to say: “Sam really had the eye of the tiger in that second half getting the ball and draining shots for us.”
What Guastella had to say when asked if shooters keep shooting – “Yeah especially when you have someone like “Boo” who kicks the ball really well. We executed plays that we put in to a tee so it was a shooter’s dream.”
If the MAAC had a Sixth Man award, it would go to Maria Napolitano
Maria Napolitano is the Jamaal Crawford of the MAAC. Rarely used as a point guard on offense, the sharp shooter from Ohio can defend both guard positions as well as the small forward spot. As the leader of the second unit, Napolitano is asked to lock-up the opposing team’s best offensive player. She had a major role in holding Damika Martinez to just six second half points Monday and Madeline Blaise to just five second half points on Jan. 22. Her tenacity, strength, and size makes her one of the most vaunted defense players in the MAAC. Offensively, through 11 games in 2015, nine of those have seen Napolitano register eight points or more, one above her season average (seven even). She is connecting on over one-third of her treys, thus far.
“It’s Maria and it’s Adily Martucci who have been so, so great for us all season long,” Fabbri said. “Today, I just went with Maria, just with her size defensively on Martinez. A bigger stronger guard who could go out and defend along with giving us that offensive punch. But you saw Adily go in and trip up Lizarazu a little but and force her into some early turnovers.”
Tidbits:
-The game was tied six times and there were 19 lead changes.
-Points off turnovers- 20-to-4 in favor of Quinnipiac
-Iona has now lost three of its last four games (at Fairfield, Marist, at Quinnipiac)
