Men's basketball overcomes first-half struggles, defeats Hawks

Men's basketball overcomes first-half struggles, defeats Hawks

By Miles McQuiggan, QBSN Staff Writer

After a frantic first half in which the Quinnipiac men’s basketball team was uncharacteristically outrebounded, and in the words of head coach Tom Moore, “outhustled and out-toughed,” the Bobcats turned it around by getting back to their strong, physical play on the boards in a 70-61 victory over Hartford at Chase Family Arena Tuesday night. 

Courtesy: quinnipiacbobcats.com

The Hawks outrebounded the Bobcats, 15-14, in the opening stanza. It was a twenty-minute stretch that left both of Quinnipiac’s starting big men with two fouls, three for starting point guard Dave Johnson (Jackson, N.J.), and a frustrated Moore on the sideline. However, the ability to find good looks from the floor allowed the Bobcats to head to the locker room with a 38-31 cushion.

The second half started out even worse for Quinnipiac, as Hartford pulled ahead courtesy of a 13-4 run in the first six minutes of the frame. But after another sloppy stretch on both sides for the next two and a half minutes, Dave Johnson was able to come up with a steal and a layup in transition to give the Bobcats a 45-44 lead, one they would not relinquish the rest of the way.

Dave Johnson was one of four Bobcats in double figures, scoring 10 points on the night.  James Johnson (Queens, N.J.) and Ike Azotam (Boston, Mass.) led the Bobcats by posting 15 points each, with Azotam recording 10 rebounds for his sixth double-double in the team’s first eight games. Freshman Zaid Hearst (Bethesda, Md.) tallied 14 points in his second career start. The Bobcats outrebounded the Hawks, 27-13, in the second half.

Hartford guard Andres Torres scored a game-high 25 points, 18 of them coming from beyond the arc.

“We played [Torres] strictly as a driver. We gave him a lot of space offensively to shoot threes, and he took the dare, and really did a great job from the perimeter,” Moore said.

The Bobcats return to action on Sunday when they travel to Burlington, Vt. to take on another America East opponent, the Vermont Catamounts.