By: Chris Dacey
After a hot start in the first half, the Quinnipiac Bobcats cooled down at home in the second half due to some shut down defense by the Niagara Purple Eagles. The Purple Eagles used this defense and turned it right into offense down the stretch and were able to win the game by a score of 81-73. The loss puts the Bobcats at 3-4 in the MAAC and Niagara moves to 5-2 in conference play.
“We really knew this was going to be a challenge,” said Quinnipiac head coach Baker Dunleavy. “You have two of the best all-around players in the league, specifically scoring the ball.”
Those two players Dunleavy is talking about are Kahlil Dukes and Matt Scott. The Bobcats were able to hold Scott to eight points because of foul trouble but Dukes was a problem for Quinnipiac as he scored a game high 23 points, 15 of those points coming in the second half.
Quinnipiac guard Isaiah Washington knew what he was up against as he was assigned the tough task of guarding the high scoring guard Dukes.
“We knew that he was a player that likes rhythm and shooting right off ball screens,” said Washington. “I tried to limit his threes and force him into take tough contested twos.”
Other than Washington, another player had an important role in tonight’s game was Jacob Rigoni who got his first start as a Bobcat tonight.
Looks like Jacob Rigoni is gonna get the start tonight. I asked Baker about that after the Rider game and say it could happen and it does #MAACHoops
— Chris Dacey (@ChrisDacey_) January 18, 2018
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“Jake does a good job for us,” said Dunleavy. “What he does really well is shoot the ball and he had six while playing a lot of minutes but he was in there battling for rebounds.”
Rigoni finished with eight points and two threes while grabbing six rebounds. The freshman played a total of 37 minutes. Another thing that does not show up on the stat sheet that Dunleavy noticed was the hustle of Rigoni on lose balls and him diving on the floor
The play of Rigoni was good to see for the freshman but what you don’t want to see if you are Quinnipiac in Niagara shooting 50 percent on the game and that is exactly what the Purple Eagles did. It was the second half where Niagara did its damage shooting just over 60 percent and nailing four of its seven threes.
“You can’t take for granted that its going to continue,” said Dunleavy talking about the second half. “You have to stay on edge and defensively we have a little bit of a let up in the middle of that second half and they went on a big time run.”
The Purple Eagles went on a 25-5 run to run away with the game in the second half. But the defense for Niagara played a big part in the turnaround.
That’s a 25-5 run if you don’t feel like doing the math https://t.co/7PWbi8Blii
— Dylan Fearon (@DylanFearon_) January 19, 2018
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“That zone probably made a little tentative and after a couple of possesions we started getting the ball inside and doing some good things but we hesitated a little bit there,” said Dunleavy.
Other than the offensive struggles the defense struggled during the Niagara run as well and Dunleavy knows this has to improve if they want to win these close games.
“Our defense let us down in the second half and we will learn from it,” the head coach said.
Bobcats are back at home on Sunday as Siena comes down to Hamden for another conference matchup.
