By: Chris Dacey
Saint Peter’s spoiled senior day for the Quinnipiac men’s basketball team. The low scoring game favored the Peacocks as they won 52-43. The Bobcats move to 7-10 in MAAC play with one more game left at Manhattan on Sunday.
“Saint Peter’s just played so hard and executed defensively,” head coach Baker Dunleavy said. “I thought our guys played hard and I thought it was one of our better defensive performances today.”
With the loss, the Bobcats still have a shot for the fifth seed and the first-round bye in the MAAC Tournament, but will need a lot of help. If Iona and Monmouth both win and Quinnipiac wins at Manhattan, the Bobcats would get the fifth seed in the tournament.
Not true. Quinnipiac needs an Iona win tonight and a Monmouth win tomorrow, then they need to beat Manhattan on Sunday. Bobcats would have the 4-way tiebreaker with Fairfield, Manhattan and Monmouth. #MAACHoops https://t.co/RF8PwoXPkx
— Daly Dose Of Hoops (@DalyDoseOfHoops) February 24, 2018
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This game against Saint Peter’s, quite like the last, Quinnipiac came out of the gate ice cold shooting the ball. The Bobcats did not score until their first shot until half way through the first half. It was a jump hook by senior Chaise Daniels that gave Quinnipiac its first field goal of the game.
“Offensively when you go 15-54 from the field, and that’s not just us missing a bunch of shots, its [Saint Peter’s] doing a great job of contesting and just being all over the place,” Dunleavy said.
Being all over the place sounds about right. Saint Peter’s, a team known for playing great defense, seemed like they knew what Quinnipiac was going to run almost every time. Whether it be doubling ball screens or closing out on a shooter, the Peacocks did not let the Bobcats get any easy looks.
“I felt like they [Saint Peter’s] really pressured me a lot,” senior Cam Young said. “They showed on a lot of ball screens and I was just trying to stay aggressive.”
Young was able to finish with a game high 16 points for the Bobcats. He scored 14 of those points in the second half as Saint Peter’s held Quinnipiac’s best scorer to only two foul shots in the first half.
Another scorer that has been crucial for the Bobcats this year is Jacob Rigoni. Rigoni had 11 points to start off the game in the first half, nailing three threes to get off to a nice start but those 11 would be it for the Aussie freshman as the second half was not kind to the freshman.
Jacob Rigoni, the three-point wonder from down under (yes, that’s a thing), scores 8 straight for QU, but St Peter’s is on fire from downtown. They’re up 28-17 behind 7 threes. Rigoni can’t do it on his own.#MAACHoops
— Ryan Chichester (@ryanchichester1) February 24, 2018
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As the regular season winds down, Dunleavy knows that even though the game tonight was a step in the right direction defensively, the offense needs to improve if the Bobcats want to make any noise in Albany during the postseason.
“We need to look over the film and establish the things that have been carrying over game to game,” Dunleavy said. “We have to find trends that are leading to poor offense but be careful to not change too much if we got good shots.”
Quinnipiac has one more game in the regular season. The game in at Manhattan and carries a lot of weight with it because of the playoff implications that go along with it. Where ever the Bobcats are seeded for the MAAC Tournament it won’t be last like the preseason coach’s poll predicted.
