Quinninpiac women’s basketball upends Monmouth
Photo Courtesy: Liz Flynn
January 16, 2020
By: Eric Kerr
By: Nick Lewis
The Quinnipiac women’s basketball team hosted the Monmouth Hawks in a packed People’s United Center, with students from schools around the area. Coming into the game the Bobcats sat sixth in the MAAC standings with a 3-2 record while the Hawks were seventh with a record of 2-4.
After struggling in the first half, the Bobcats used a strong third quarter to pull out the win against Monmouth.
Both teams were frequently missing shots and turning the ball over on both ends of the floor. Quinnipiac assistant coach Brian Wilson did not think the offense played up to par in the first half.
“Offensively we felt like it was a little disjointed in the first half. We were calling a lot of plays, we weren’t really flowing in our offense” Wilson said.
Although the offense struggled in the first half, there were a few players who finished the game strong in the scoring column. Junior guard Shaq Edwards led the team with 20 points followed by first-year forward Cur’Tiera Haywood, who had a career-high 17 points. Sophomore guard Mackenzie DeWees had 10 points. The main reason the offense was struggling was due to the crowd noise, according to Edwards.
“I think we were a little confused with the noise, the kids, the play calls from the coach and then me trying to translate that to everyone on the floor. I think that’s why we were a little bit off in the first quarter,” said Edwards.
Edwards said coming out of halftime the team wanted to come out of the locker room with energy and she, personally, was told to be more aggressive. One of the other adjustments that was made at halftime was calling less set plays. Most of the Bobcats offense came from the plays the team made on defense.
“We got stops, we got a couple runs offs, we got on the offensive glass, we got some putbacks, and we got to the free throw line,” said Wilson. “The team did respond, we didn’t have a ton of offensive rebounds in the first half. We talked about it at the half, and Paige [Warfel] and Mackenzie [DeWees] were huge on the glass.”
Some of the players enjoyed having the kids in the People’s United Center and were able to feed off the energy they brought. DeWees said she enjoyed the vibe and hopes the Bobcats made a few more future fans.
The Bobcats improve to 4-4 in MAAC play with the win and they host the Canisius Golden Griffins on Saturday the 18th. The Golden Griffins are currently 1-3 in MAAC play and sit ninth in the conference standings.
