Courtesy: Quinnipiac Athletics
With 13 minutes and 10 seconds remaining in the first half, Quinnipiac guard Evan Conti caught the ball at the top of the key and hit a 3-pointer to give Quinnipiac a 14-12 lead.
That was the last lead the Bobcats would have the rest of the night, as they fell to Marist Thursday night in the first round of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament 80-74. After Conti’s 3, the Red Foxes went on a 29-to-11 scoring run, spanning 12 minutes. Marist went 13-for-19 from distance and shot 52 percent from the field.
“Credit to Marist tonight of how well they shot the ball,” Quinnipiac head coach Tom Moore said. “They are a difficult team to guard because they run their offense very well. They are very patient and it’s a very different and unique offense than any other team in the league runs.”
Mike Maker’s Marist team will now advance to face Manhattan in the quarterfinals Saturday night.
“We made some big 3’s,” he said. “We shot, my goodness, 68 percent from beyond the arc. When we can stretch the defense like that and take care of the basketball it gives us a chance because they get extra possessions with the 23 offensive rebounds.”
The Bobcats would ease their way back into the game though. With 11:33 left in the game and Marist leading by seven, Zaid Hearst and freshman Dimitri Floras hit back to back 3-pointers to cut the Red Fox advantage to just one. Then out of a timeout, Marist hit two 3’s of its own. Eleven free throws and two 3-pointers later, Marist found itself advancing to the quarterfinals of the MAAC tournament and eliminating Quinnipiac in the process.
This was the 12th time this season the Bobcats lost a game by two possessions or less.
“We haven’t shot the ball well enough over the balance of the year to get the 10-2 runs, the 8-0 runs, to stop the other team’s 8-0 runs,” Moore said. “The key point in the game I thought was that stretch where it was one or tied with six to go or five to go and we missed two jump shots and they made two jump shots. Then the lead was six or seven.”
Both Hearst and Drame took 18 shots Thursday night. Hearst went just 4-for-18 from the field, including 3-for-13 from behind the arc. Drame had a night to remember.
“Twenty-seven points, 23 rebounds. Not bad for a second team All-League guy,” Moore said with a hint of sarcasm. “If there was a draft off all the guys in this league, it would be A.J. English, David Laury and Ousmane Drame.”
The 27 points is the most for Drame since Nov. 30 against Vermont, and 23 rebounds is a career-high for the senior. Drame was having his way inside, but only took two field goal attempts in the final seven minutes, a surprise to some.
“They were playing zone,” Moore said. “We tried to get him open in the middle of the zone. Sometimes other shots avail themselves earlier in an offense.”
The two big disappointments for Quinnipiac came from Hearst and Conti, the latter of whom fouled out with five points, zero assists and four turnovers on his stat line. Aside from Drame, the seniors shot 10-for-33 from the field. Instead of playing Manhattan in the quarterfinals, the Bobcats are heading home with a 15-15 record.
