After 29 games, a regular season filled with inconsistency, ineligibility and more questions than answers is finally over. It is officially championship season for the Quinnipiac men’s basketball team. Six seniors have one final chance to go to the dance. Four games in five days stands between the sixth-seeded Bobcats and their first NCAA tournament berth in program history. The first challenge Tom Moore’s squad faces? The Marist Red Foxes.
Quinnipiac swept 11-seeded Marist in the regular season, and should get by them again when they tip off at 9 p.m. Thursday. But Quinnipiac knows how hard it is to beat a team three times in a one season *cough* *cough* Manhattan last year *cough* *cough*. The Bobcats will be taking on a Marist team that was severely banged up for the first half of the season and has two big-time scorers in Chavaughn Lewis and Khalid Hart. Lewis led the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in points per game this season at 20.3 points per game, while the sophomore Hart has averaged just under 15 points per contest.
Quinnipiac’s priority Thursday night has to be to get the ball inside to big man Ousmane Drame. With Marist’s depleted front court, the plan needs to be to utilize Drame and Justin Harris as much as possible. Most of the time Drame is not the priority, and the Bobcats will take a lot of jump shots and rely on offensive rebounding, with the occasional pass inside. But Drame, who he has shown at times that he is the best big man in the conference, has to be the number one option for Quinnipiac. The senior from Boston averaged 18 points and 13 rebounds in the two regular season games against Marist, who ranks No. 339 in the nation in rebounds per game. Tom Moore needs to work it inside, and cannot settle for jump shots late in the shot clock.
Quinnipiac’s rebounding has been top in the country for a couple of years, but what has been more impressive this season are the Bobcats’ performance at the free throw line. When this senior class came in as freshman back in 2010-11, Quinnipiac shot 63.8 percent from the charity stripe, good for 308th in the country. Over the years the Bobcats have improved from the line, and this season are shooting a remarkable 77.7 percent, which is tied for second in the country with Ole Miss and Eastern Kentucky. Free throw shooting can propel you into the next round, or send you packing. If Quinnipiac goes inside a lot, that could lead to a lot of free throws from Drame and Harris, who have been great from the stripe this year, both shooting over 80 percent. But let’s see how they do at a bigger stage, under brighter lights.
Evan Conti is the least talked about Bobcat, yet he may be the most important. It has been a very interesting career for the Bayside, New York native to say the least. The sky was limit for Conti after his sophomore season, when he averaged 8.5 points per game and shot 40 percent from the field. But his junior campaign was one to forget. Conti was unproductive from the start, unable to find his shot. As a result, his minutes dropped, and Conti spent more time on the bench than on the court. With just one more year to make history, Conti stepped up during the regular season, posting career-highs in points, rebounds, assists, 3-point percentage and free throw percentage. When he scores in double figures, the Bobcats are 9-4. Single digits? Quinnipiac is 6-10. If the Bobcats are primed to make a run in the tournament, it’s “Ev” that has to step up.
Containing Chavaughn Lewis and Khalid Hart is going to be very tough for Quinnipiac, and most likely the two will have there way Thursday. But what cannot happen is allowing other Marist players to have good days. If the Bobcats allow 15 or more points to T.J. Curry or Phillip Lawrence, then they could be in some trouble. Lewis and Hart will both probably be north of 18 points, but it’s about keeping the role players in check, not allowing 3-pointers, and keeping Marist out of transition.
In the first 21 games of the season, Zaid Hearst was on a tear, averaging 20.3 points per game. And then, fatigue kicked in. The captain went on a six game stretch where his missed just 7 total minutes, including playing 48 minutes in a double overtime loss at Niagara. Hearst plays extremely well on both sides of the ball, and Tom Moore puts the senior from Bethesda, Maryland on the opponent’s best offensive threat. A tired Hearst then went on a six-game stretch averaging just 10.7 points, while shooting 31 percent from the field and 23 percent from behind they arc. Quinnipiac went 3-3 in the stretch and failed to earn a bye in the MAAC tournament.
With two games left until the tournament, Hearst needed to have two good games to get back on track. “Z” scored 20 points against Siena and 22 at Manhattan to end the regular season, shooting 54 percent from the field in the pair of contests. Hearst knows his college career will eventually have to come to an end, but he will need to be efficient with that step-back jumper to prolong the inevitable.
A new season has started for all 11 MAAC teams. It is win or go home time. Who has the toughness, the guts, the chutzpa to win three games in three days, or four in five? This is March, folks. Enjoy the ride.
