QU ends season in heartbreaking loss

QU ends season in heartbreaking loss

By Gilbert A. Celaya, QBSN Staff Writer

In a game to determine who would advance to the 2012 Northeast Conference Championship game, the Quinnipiac women’s basketball team lost to the Monmouth Hawks 66-69.

Felicia Barron (Springfield, Mass.) hit a three-pointer for the Bobcats to score the first points of the game.  However, Quinnipiac went cold and was not able to do much for the rest of the first half.

Monmouth scored at will during the first half and Quinnipiac could not find a defensive answer to stop the Hawks.  Quinnipiac fell behind as much as 16 points three different times throughout the first half.

“They were ready to go play,” Quinnipiac head coach Tricia Fabbri said of the first half performance.  “We were just on our heels and knocked back and just really took it instead of making a stand early in the first half.”

Despite out-rebounding the Hawks in the first half, Quinnipiac was simply outplayed.  In the first half, the Bobcats shot 41.7 percent from the field, and 33.3 percent from the three-point line compared to Monmouth who shot 56.7 percent from the field and 60 percent from three-point range.

With two minutes and 11-seconds left in the first half, Barron was called for a personal foul while going for a loose ball.  Frustrated with the call and by poor play from the Lady Bobcats, Barron spiked the ball off the floor, which earned her a technical foul. Alysha Womack buried the technical free throws for Monmouth to make the score 26-40 at that point in the game.  The Hawks took a 28-42 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The Bobcats started the second half by once again taking very poor shot selections.  However, Quinnipiac did come out with intensity and aggression in the second half, especially by using a full-court press on defense.

Quinnipiac was able to disrupt the Hawks’ offense by using the full-court press and force Monmouth to start turning over the ball.  Not only were the Bobcats able to steal the ball from Monmouth and gain turnovers, Quinnipiac’s high rebounding percentage carried over from the first half.

 “It took us out of our rhythm a little bit,” said Monmouth head coach Jenny Palmateer of the Bobcat defense.  “So it was very effective.  But I thought we handled it really, really well once we got the hang of it.”

The Bobcats were able to fight their way back form a 14-point halftime deficit during the second half.  With nine minutes and seven seconds left to play, freshman forward Samantha Guastella (Red Bank, N.J.) buried a three-pointer to make the score 51-50.  Then later with the game tied at 53, Guastella was fouled while grabbing an offensive rebound which put QU in the lead.  Guastella made one and missed one, giving the Bobcats their first lead of the game since Barron’s three-pointer that opened the game.

However, the run by the Bobcats was too little, too late.  With 2.1 seconds left in the game and the Monmouth leading 66-69, Guastella inbounded the ball to Barron who was able to drive the ball to mid-court where she took a desperation shot to try and tie the game.  The shot fell short as the clock expired thus ending the season for the Bobcats.

“Honestly, we just went out there and gave it everything we had and if we could have done that in the first half we would have came out of this game with a win, but we didn’t put two halves together and the outcome of this game was a loss,” said freshman guard Jasmine Martin (Sicklerville, N.J..  Martin led all scorers with 26 points on Tuesday Night. 

Even with a heartbreaking loss that has ended the Bobcats 2011-2012 season, Martin also expressed her eagerness about the team next season.

“Everyone all together, but I really think this freshman group that we have,” said Martin.  “I’m really excited to see what we can do for the next couple of years because we just want it so bad, and I know all the other girls do too.  We just have to go out there and keep fighting because that’s exactly what we did in the second half.”