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A double overtime thriller that saw a combined 172 points essentially ended on a defensive play. A charge from Quinnipiac men’s basketball sophomore Rich Kelly earned the Bobcats their second conference victory of the season.

Kelly, the teams starting point guard, was pivotal in Quinnipiac winning the game 89-83. The guard scored 25 points, but it was a shot from behind the arc that swished through the net, which gave Quinnipiac the lead for good.

“Surprisingly I didn’t really think about it,” Kelly said on his three-pointer that came with 35 seconds left. “Cam (Young) just gave me a great pass and I just kind of let it go and thought it was good and it went in. Then it’s kind of like alright let’s get a stop now.”

While winning a game in double overtime could bring a ton of momentum to a team, it might not have that much of an effect for the Bobcats due to why they were in the situation.

The Bobcat’s led 63-49 with just 96 seconds remaining in the game. The Hawks clawed their way back to send it to overtime. A large part of that was due to the Hawks full court press which gave the Bobcats fits.

“I felt like most of the season we’ve had games where we really executed against the pressure and we really work on that in practice and have gotten better,” Quinnipiac head coach Baker Dunleavy said. “Obviously tonight that was a theme. We didn’t execute down the stretch. Some bad luck and lack of execution. We have to be more physical. We just have to spend more time on it in practice and get everybody on the same page. “

His point guard echoed that same message.

“I think they did a good job of switching and denying,” Kelly said. “We as a team weren’t physical enough and kind of posted up our guys and giving the inbounded a pass.”

With Quinnipiac missing Kevin Marfo, Nathan Davis and Andrew Robinson all due to injuries, its rotation was already shortened. Then factor in playing an extra 10 minutes where players can get in foul trouble and teams can find themselves in predicaments.

“Guys have to play more minutes,” Dunleavy said. “You have guys playing out of position when you’re injured. Rigoni stepping up and playing the five. You have injuries and that combined with foul trouble and all of a sudden your rotation gets shorter.”

Last year’s Bobcats lost the two double-overtime games they found themselves in. However, this year’s team managed to squeeze out a victory. That is due to the growth of the team.

“Two different groups,” Dunleavy said. “Last years group was at a disadvantage in terms of being so new. We lost two double-overtime games last year. We were slower probably in our growth. This year’s team has a chance to have faster growth and I’ve said that from the beginning and you better grow from experiences like this.”

Quinnipiac will have a quick turnaround as it faces Fairfield at home on Sunday, Jan. 13. It will have to adjust on the fly.

“Yeah sure,” Dunleavy said about whether his players playing so many minutes will have an effect for Sunday. “It is what it is. They’re not going to feel bad for us. Nobody’s going to feel bad for us. We’ll be ready.”

FULL POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCES:

Baker Dunleavy

Rich Kelly and Cam Young

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