By Chris Dacey
After one win in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament, ESPN gave Quinnipiac a 12.6 percent chance to beat its next opponent, Canisius. That didn’t hold up as the Bobcats upset the Golden Griffins 72-69 in a thrilling contest.
UPSET DONE. Bobcats win 72-69. Crazy game with an even crazier finish. #MAACHoops18
— Chris Dacey (@ChrisDacey_) March 3, 2018
The second half lineup of Rich Kelly, Isaiah Washington, Aaron Robinson, Alain Chigha and Abdulai Bundu was able to keep Quinnipiac in this game. The lineup put together a 10-0 run when the game seemed like it was slipping away from the Bobcats.
“We challenged our guys at halftime,” head coach Baker Dunleavy said. “And those guys really came in and stepped up, they took it personally.”
After the Bobcats got themselves back into the game, Kelly was able to keep the offense cooking whether it be his shooting or decision making near the hoop even with the game on the line with under a minute to play.
“I am very confident in my team and myself right now,” Kelly said. “Tonight was a great win but we didn’t come here just to win two games.”
The biggest challenge for the Bobcats had to be guarding Co-MAAC Player of the Year, Jermaine Crumpton who finished with 00 points and 00 rebounds in the contest. The Bobcats plan was to play offense-defense with Jacob Rigoni and Chigha respectively.
“He [Crumpton] is arguably the best player in the league,” Dunleavy said. “We wanted to be aggressive on him, we wanted to make him uncomfortable and throughout the game I felt like sometimes we did that and sometimes we didn’t.”
Bobcats seem to be going offense-defense with Rigoni and Chigha. Bold move Cotton, lets see how it pays off for them. Griff lead 21-20. #MAACHoops18
— Chris Dacey (@ChrisDacey_) March 3, 2018
After Chigha picked up his fourth foul, Rigoni was tasked with guarding up Crumpton for most of the rest of the game.
Another challenge that Quinnipiac faced with Canisius was rebounding the ball, especially on the defensive boards. In the first half, the Bobcats let the Griffs grab nine rebounds for second chance opportunities.
But after making some adjustments in the locker room, Quinnipiac only led up 7 offensive rebounds in the second half.
“It was something we talked about within the first five minutes of the game. Early in the game we were all talking about it and the energy just wasn’t there to start,” Dunleavy said.
Dunleavy started his tenure at Quinnipiac with the projection to finish dead last in the MAAC but that changed when the Bobcats received the seventh seed. As Dunleavy looks back at the season, he explained where he thought he team was capable of but he was never really sure.
“I think it’s hard for a coach to make predictions when it comes to wins and losses, you just don’t know how your team is going to develop,” Dunleavy said. “What I knew was we had a high character group, I knew we had some talent and I knew we were inexperienced. It was just a matter of how much improvement we can make and I thought we can be a pretty good team by the end of the year.”
The Bobcats are now in the semifinals. After their day off on Saturday, Quinnipiac will play the winner of Niagara and Fairfield who play Saturday. The game is slated for 9:30 p.m.
