A Wednesday matinee brought the Siena Saints to the People’s United Center, as the Quinnipiac women’s basketball team looked to extend its five-game home winning streak.

The Bobcats went into the half trailing by one but turned things around in the second half and coasted to an 84-63 victory.

Quinnipiac extended its winning streak to five games and its home winning streak, dating back to a Jan. 4 game against Marist, to six games.

Everyone who touched the floor got into the scoring column Wednesday afternoon, led by sophomore forward Mikala Morris’ 21 points, 10 rebounds, and four blocks as the Bobcats produced their highest scoring output of the season.

Quinnipiac pushes its record to 12-5 overall and 10-3 in the MAAC, good for second place, and becomes the second team to reach 10 or more conference wins on the season behind first place Marist.

Pushing through Slow Starts

The Bobcats came out in the first half fresh off of a big weekend series against Fairfield, and it showed.

“We had just played two games against really good teams so we expected to just come in here and start off how we finished,” Morris said. “Halftime we kind of got it into gear and played to our full potential.”

Head coach Tricia Fabbri noted a standout defensive sequence followed by a layup from Vanessa Udoji in the third quarter as the turning point in the game for the Bobcats. That play ignited a stretch of pure offensive dominance.

In the final 14:01 of the game, Quinnipiac outscored Siena 38-10, allowing just nine points in the final quarter.

“At that point we just took it over,” Fabbri said. “That was just a huge momentum swing late in the third. One possession just broke their backs on a leak out and then we were able to capitalize and really just swing the momentum for the remainder of the game.”

Sharing the Wealth

Quinnipiac ranks third in the MAAC in assists so it’s not out of the ordinary for the Bobcats to have great passing numbers. But on Wednesday, the team shared the ball arguably the best it has all season.

Paced by Rose Caverly’s nine dimes, the Bobcats finished with 26 assists on 34 made baskets. The team moved well without the ball and willingly made the extra pass to find shooters like Jillian Casey – who started once again and scored a career-high 11 points including 2-3 from deep in 19 minutes – Udoji, Mackenzie DeWees, and others as they cut to the basket for layups.

“In the first half they were in a matchup zone so I kept trying to feed it into the middle and [Morris] was just having a night so I just kept getting it in there,” Caverly said after setting a new career-high in assists.

“[DeWees] and Vanessa and [Chiara Bachini] and everybody slashing to the basket, they cut and I just see them so it came really naturally in the first half and especially late in the game too.”

DeWees added another 13-point, 11-rebound double-double and Caverly added 10 points of her own. The bench came up big once again with 24 total points led by Udoji’s eight.

“That’s how we’re going to win the games, by everyone contributing every single game,” Morris said.

Siena will visit Hamden for one more game on Sunday. The Bobcats will then travel to Iona on Feb. 24 for a contest against the Gaels.