Courtesy: Quinnipiac Athletics
By Morey Hershgordon
It has been quite an eventful season, thus far, for the Quinnipiac Bobcats. They have garnered out-of-conference victories over 2014 NCAA Tournament teams Army, Hampton, Albany and Saint Joseph’s. They also defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide, the first program victory over an SEC team. They swept a pair of MAAC games, including a victory at Fairfield, the 300th career win for Head Coach Tricia Fabbri. And on the road, they gained great experience while playing at Notre Dame.
This set up one final matchup in a championship game at the 22nd -annual Hawk Classic. A victory and a championship trophy, would cap off an improbable 11-2 mark heading into the meat of conference play.
But Florida Gulf Coast had other plans. The defending Atlantic Sun champions, fifth-ranked team in the latest CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major poll and No. 22 in the country in RPI, did not make a trek of almost 1,200 miles to lose. In a battle, the Eagles knocked off the Bobcats 71-65.
Nikoline Ostergaard delivered one of her best statistical performances of the season. After the game, she attributed her success to her team.
“It’s my teammates, they’re the ones giving me the ball,” she said. “When there is a smaller guard on me it is so easy for me. I’ve played the [guard] and I’ve played the [forward] too.”
The senior from Denmark scored the majority of her team-high 22 points within eight feet of the basket. She also grabbed nine rebounds and dished out five assists.
“Nik is just playing great basketball,” added Fabbri. “I mean what didn’t she do for us tonight?”
Ostergaard did everything that she could, but the majority of the Bobcats roster turned in poor outings, especially on the defensive glass.
“We’ve been harping on it a little bit. With the absence of Brittany, we’ve had some individual guys step up and defensively rebound for us, but we’ve got to collectively get better rebounding defensively,” Fabbri said. “We had stops and we couldn’t come up with the ball.”
Brittany McQuain, a four-year starter who graduated this past May, did the brunt of the rebounding work for the Bobcats during her time. She averaged 9.2 rebounds per game last season
The Bobcats were yet again out-rebounded on Monday; they were minus-12 in that category.
However, Fabbri did mention two bright spots to lean on heading into MAAC play. One of them being the production of her second unit.
“Our second five has really been coming up for us and that’s been the difference where we’ve been able to separate and hold and keep a lead.”
The five off the bench helped spark a run that had the Bobcats leading by nine points with just 6:23 to play in the first half. Before the Bobcats could work on building off of their lead, the Eagles capped the final minutes of the half on a 15-4 run, including a turn-around, fade-away bank shot by Kaneisha Atwater with three seconds left in the half to give Karl Smesko’s squad a 29-27 advantage at intermission.
The other bright spot included holding the preseason Atlantic Sun Player of the Year, Whitney Knight, to just two for 15 shooting. Keeping opponents like Knight, who holds similar scoring abilities to MAAC players such as Damika Martinez and Joy Adams of Iona and Sydney Coffey and Madeline Blais of Marist, to a low percentage will pay dividends once the rest of the pieces come together.
Fabbri and her Bobcats conclude 2014 with a loss and ride I-95 all the way back to Hamden, Connecticut where they host Niagara on Friday. Nonetheless, the improvements Quinnipiac made over the course of the first two months should not be overlooked. Fabbri understands the big picture.
“At 10-3,” she said. “I think you take a step back and you’re really pleased with the non-conference.”
