Photo courtesy Quinnipiac Athletics
By: Shane Dennehy
The saying goes, “patience is a virtue”.
The Quinnipiac Bobcats had their patience tested as they have waited over 347 days to get revenge on the Iona Gaels.
Iona defeated Quinnipiac in last year’s Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship game 57-41, then again in its first meeting this season on Jan. 28, 58-44.
The Bobcats finally got the revenge they have been seeking when they beat the Iona Gaels 53-45 on Friday night at Lender Court.
“I think it’s just good to get this win against a team that we lost to pretty badly a couple of weeks ago,” Quinnipiac guard Carly Fabbri said.
Quinnipiac held Iona guard Marina Lizarazu to just four points, which was well below her season average. Lizarazu averages 14.5 points per game, good for seventh in the MAAC.
Lizarazu was standing in the corner, came off a screen that freed her at the top of the key and allowed her to penetrate into the lane for an easy layup. Lizarazu got a heavy dose of Adily Martucci.
“My teammates were in the gaps, which definitely helped with the drives. I just made sure that she didn’t hit any threes. But I think as a team, we played great team defense,” Quinnipiac guard Martucci said.
Martucci ran the show for Quinnipiac on both ends of the floor as she led Quinnipiac with 14 points and defended some of the hottest hands in the conference.
“Adily led the charge out of the locker room at halftime. When the ball isn’t going in the net, I asked the team ‘who wants it?’ and she rose to the challenge,” Head Coach Tricia Fabbri said of her senior captain.
Quinnipiac showed incredible desire on the defensive end of the floor against Iona, forcing 18 turnovers.
On three separate occasions, Lizarazu tried to lob a pass into Karynda DuPree and failed each time. Paula Strautmane, who was at a disadvantage when it came to defending DuPree, used her athleticism to combat DuPree’s height advantage. The final time came against Sarah Shewan who, just like her teammate, tipped it away.
Aryn McClure and Carly Fabbri were all over the Iona players as they combined for seven steals. McClure led Quinnipiac with four steals. This was nearly double her season average, as she averages 1.6 steals per game, good for tenth in the MAAC.
Coming into this matchup, Fabbri had drawn up three separate plans to guard Lizarazu if she started to become a threat.
“We stayed with [plan] A. The defense has been great all season and today was no exception. Adily [Martucci] was great on [Lizarazu],” Fabbri said.
Quinnipiac trailed 22-20 coming out of halftime. A Gaels layup started the scoring in the second half, but the Bobcats quickly went on a 7-0 run to give themselves a 27-24 lead. Aryn McClure, whose steal led to a Jen Fay layup, spearheaded this run and McClure followed that basket up with jumper.
“I think we just came out with a lot more confidence. We had to get it going, it was a new half,” McClure said.
This game was a tail of two different halves and even though the first half did not belong to either team, the second half most certainly belonged to the Bobcats who outscored the Gaels 33-23.
Quinnipiac picked up its fourth straight MAAC win following two straight MAAC loses to Iona and Fairfield respectively.
The full significance of this game will go unnoticed in the box score, as the color of the player’s warmups and the color of the spectator’s shirts were pink. Tonight was Quinnipiac’s Play 4 Kay game. Former North Carolina State Women’s basketball coach, Kay Yow, whose goal was to raise money to fight women’s cancer, started the charity on Dec. 3, 2007.
The Quinnipiac Bobcats took part in this year’s Play 4 Kay tournament out in Las Vegas, Nevada in December. Quinnipiac Head Coach Tricia Fabbri wanted to help so she is donating $1 for every ticket that was sold for the game on Friday night.
Quinnipiac moved into a tie with Rider for first place in the MAAC with this win. Quinnipiac is now 21-6 (14-3 MAAC). The Bobcats will travel down to Manhattan, New York on Sunday afternoon to take on the Manhattan Jaspers who are ninth in the MAAC.
