By: John Franklin
The road to back-to-back Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Tournament championships started today for the Quinnipiac women’s basketball team.
Quinnipiac won a hard fought battle with Niagara, 74-51 at the Times Union Center in Albany, New York. Here are my three takeaways from the game.
Bobcats fierce on defense:
From the opening tip, Quinnipiac played high-pressure defense on Niagara.
The first six-of-seven possessions resulted in turnovers for the Purple Eagles, and it was due in part to Quinnipiac forcing the issue by playing a trap on Tiffany Corselli, who had a career high 22 points against Canisius in the first round.
“We were ready to play,” Quinnipiac head coach Tricia Fabbri said. “It was great to see us dialed in. I knew this morning in the (shoot around) that we were ready to go. We took the floor and knew what was coming.”
Quinnpiac forced 20 turnovers on the game, and had 17 points off of turnovers.
“It was great to see what we did in scout come to life, and it was a beautiful thing to watch. It couldn’t have been a better start for us,” Fabbri said.
Points in the Paint:
The Bobcats dominated down low in this one.
The offense seemed to run through the post for Quinnipiac, but Fabbri elaborated in the postgame press conference that going down low might not have necessarily been the game plan.
“I credit Niagara. Their zone defense really took away the 3-point line. They were very stingy and we didn’t get many looks at all,” Fabbri said.
Between the dominant forces of Strautmane and Shewan, Quinnipiac established its presence as one of the strongest teams in the paint in the MAAC. Shewan and Strautmane combined for 42 points in this game, and will look to continue their success in the semifinals.
The Fabbris are at their finest:
A common basketball anecdote is that the point guard is the coach on the floor.
Tricia Fabbri has coached her team to 18 straight wins and a big help in that has been her switching her daughter Carly Fabbri to the point guard spot.
“Carly has been really good for us all year. The point guard has tremendous responsibility in our system, and she’s had a really solid year with the ball in her hands,” Tricia Fabbri said.
“She’s a smart point guard, she’s heady, and she knows exactly what we want in the system. The added thing for us has been her ability to shoot the ball. That’s paid big dividends during the regular season, and It’s been really nice to see her pull up and put the exclamation point on this one,” Tricia Fabbri said.
Since she’s been at the point guard position of the Bobcats, it’s been an entirely different team, and it showed in this game as Fabbri led the Bobcats with three assists, and went two-for-two from the field with five points.
Quinnipiac advances to the semifinals with the win, it awaits the winner of Fairfield and Monmouth.
