By Chris Dacey
It was the end of a long season for the Bobcats.
On Thursday night Quinnipiac lost to Niagara 88-69 in the first round of the MAAC Tournament at Times Union Center. It was a game where Quinnipiac was out rebounded 44-32 by the Purple Eagles.
“I thought offensively in the first half we had a chance to go into halftime with six or eight-point lead,” Quinnipiac head coach Tom Moore said. “We missed a couple layups and didn’t make our shots.”
The shots just seemed like they were not falling for Tom Moore and his squad. At the end of the first half, the Bobcats shot 34.3 percent from the floor scoring only 27 points. Star freshmen Mikey Dixon and Pete Kiss shot just three-for-15 from the floor and the former only scored three points in the opening half.
Even with these struggles in the first half, Quinnipiac only found itself down two at the half.
“It felt like being down by two at half, we wasted a good defensive effort,” Moore said. “We obviously did not play good enough defense in the second half.”
Throughout the season Quinnipiac could not stop teams when it needed to the most. The Bobcats’ defense ranked the worst in MAAC play by giving up 83.2 points per game.
On top of this, Quinnipiac dropped six straight games entering postseason play. With a young bunch Moore believed his team’s morale was just fine this week in practice.
“I can’t lie. Our attitude is great and they try hard. They never stopped paying attention or do anything that was overt,” Moore said.
And when Moore was asked about his future at Quinnipiac, he said it was just a part of the job.
“I’m concerned, of course. This is a really tough business and it’s a result driven business,” Moore said. “I look back at what we have done here in our ten years here and I’m still very proud of what we have done.”
As for the Purple Eagles, they too were on a skid of their own. Riding a five-game skid, head coach Chris Casey was proud of his team’s performance.
“I was really really proud of our level of togetherness and connection on the court today,” said Casey. “I thought we were focused in and did a good job of playing together on both ends of the floor.”
Niagara forced 19 turnovers and converted 21 points off of those chances. Also, the Purple Eagles dominated the paint scoring 34 points compared to Quinnipiac’s 18. Compare that to last time these two teams met when Quinnipiac outscored Niagara 44-24 in the same category. That is a stark 36 point difference.
“I thought Maurice Taylor did an excellent job on the glass,” Casey said. “It was something we really stressed in practice this week.”
Not only did Niagara out rebound Quinnipiac, but the Purple Eagles grabbed 16 offensive rebounds which helped them score 18 second chance points, 12 of those coming in the second half.
“Every game is an experience and part of experience is going through some things like tough times, success and learning how to handle all of it,” Casey said.
As for Quinnipiac, another disappointing season is in the books. The Bobcats finish the season with a 10-21 record, just a one win improvement from last year. Moore believes the future is bright for his team.
In the post-game press conference, Moore looked at Chaise Daniels sitting next to him and proclaimed to the room that he would be the best big in the MAAC next year. He added that Kiss and Dixon will be two of the best guards in the MAAC.
