Photo courtesy Quinnipiac Athletics
By: Chris Dacey
The Quinnipiac Bobcats scored a season-high 99 points tonight against in-state rival Hartford. The game included five different Bobcat players that score in double digits, Pete Kiss, Mikey Dixon, Danny Harris and Donavan Smith. The offensive explosion easily defeated the Hawks 99-79.
After a great defensive performance against Marist on Sunday, Quinnipiac showed that they have some offensive power as well. Out of the five players that scored in the double digits today, two of them, Smith and Harris, had their seasons high for points.
“The guys just got me the ball and I stuck to my principles and doing what I had to do,” said Smith on his performance.
Smith entered in the opening minutes of the game to guard Hartford big man, Hassan Attia. Smith shut him down in the paint and proved he was far more superior. He was able to make tough shots and get fouled. He knocked down five of his six free throws.
The game also featured a lot more transition offense from the Bobcats and the team pushing the ball off rebounds and turnovers. Quinnipiac scored 18 points off turnovers and another 13 points on the fast break.
As for head coach Tom Moore, he took the win as a learning experience for this team, still trying to figure some things out.
“I felt like we took a set forward tonight doing more things at a high level at both ends of the court,” said Moore. “I think are guys are practicing really well and they are starting to learn how hard it is to win a Division I game.”
However, this Bobcat team did not make winning look hard as they shot an impressive 53.8 percent from the floor including 50 percent from behind the arc. And the one stat that Moore emphasizes the most, rebounding, was key tonight as the Bobcats grabbed 46 compared to Hartford’s 24. And 18 of those happened on the offensive glass creating 21 second chance points for the Bobcats.
“Donavan Smith in particular, I think he is practicing much more constantly and it translated to the court,” said Moore. “I thought he played fantastic tonight.”
Smith finished with a double-double, 15 points and 10 rebounds, coming off the bench. And his game showed on both sides of the court only allowing Attia to score four total points.
Also, Smith had a highlight reel ally-op dunk in the second half from a feed from Phil Winston. Smith was also asked about the dunk after the game.
“It’s first instinct to go up with one hand,” said Smith. “A couple times I went up with two but I decided to switch it up a little bit.”
But it was not just Smith finishing in the paint. Quinnipiac finished with 34 points in the paint. Another stat that pleased Moore was the team’s total assists, 25. Winston and Dixon had 10 and seven assists respectively.
With all of this offense, it’s easy to forget that the Bobcat defense carried over with its impressive performance against Marist. In the second half alone, Quinnipiac as a team only let up 38 of Hartford’s 79 points. Hartford scored 20 of those 38 from the free throw line. Not too shabby for a team that just one week ago let up a whopping 90 points MAAC foe Monmouth.
The offensive play might come as a shock to some around the MAAC but, Harris felt this one coming all along.
“When we played Vermont and when we played Columbia you saw glimpses of it and I told you guys we were going to be a lot better,” said Harris. “And we were today.”
Quinnipiac (3-5) will travel up to Massachusetts on Sunday Dec. 11 to clash with another out of conference team Holy Cross (3-6) in its next game.
