 "Photo: Matt Andrew/The Quad News")
The TD Bank Sports Center has been good to the Quinnipiac men’s basketball team this season. Just how good exactly? With Thursday night’s 84-75 victory over Monmouth in the Northeast Conference men’s basketball tournament quarterfinals, the Bobcats improve to 13-0 at home. The No. 1 seeded Bobcats played in front of the second largest crowd at the Bank this season, and a good portion of the 2,334 in attendance were students.
“I’ve dreamed of having at atmosphere like that in this building, dreamed of it, and tonight was really special,” said Quinnipiac head coach Tom Moore. “It was great to play in an environment like that. It got loud there."
Quinnipiac now moves to 22-8 (14-3 NEC) on the season, and will host No. 4 seed Long Island University on Sunday in the semifinals. Fortunately for the Bobcats, as long as they keep winning, they won’t have to leave the comfort of home, having captured the regular season NEC crown and the top seed this season. Monmouth closed out their season with a mark of 12-19 (8-11 NEC).
Sophomore point guard James Johnson carried the Bobcats down the stretch, scoring 15 of his 23 points in the second half. Johnson shot 6-of-8 from the floor, including 3-of-4 from three-point range and 8-of-10 from the free throw line. He hit clutch shots late in the game, including a three-pointer at the 10:17 mark which gave the Bobcats a 54-50 lead they would not relinquish, and began his streak of seven straight points for the Bobcats. Then, he nailed another three with 3:51 remaining that put QU up 70-63 and gave them some breathing room as they closed the game out.
When asked about the big three pointers he hit during the game, Johnson just sort of shrugged them off as nothing he hadn’t done before.
“Nah, I’m from New York,” Johnson said. “It was just like another routine shot for me.”
Moore went so far as to compare Johnson with some of the guards he coached during his time at the University of Connecticut. Players such as Kevin Ollie, Taliek Brown, and Rickey Moore came to mind.
“[Johnson’s] got a great competitive will,” Moore said “He’s our hardest working kid on his individual game that we have in the program, so when he rises up to take that three, I have a feeling that he’s going to will it in.”
Johnson was one of five Quinnipiac players to score in double figures. Senior James Feldeine had 15 points and nine rebounds, and junior Justin Rutty recorded another double-double with 14 points and 13 boards. Senior guard Jeremy Baker added 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting, and freshman Deontay Twyman contributed 10 off the bench.
Johnson sealed the victory for the Bobcats with five consecutive free throws to end the game, as Quinnipiac shot 28-33 from the line.
It was the third meeting between these two teams this season, and the grudge match did not disappoint. Monmouth won the first matchup at home 72-60 early in the season, and Quinnipiac answered just a week ago with an 82-63 victory on senior night. This battle, however, saw eight ties and six lead changes.
The Bobcats held the Hawks leading scorer on the season, forward Travis Taylor , who averaged 18.1 points per game, to just 11 points and five rebounds, as they double-teamed the sophomore every time he got the ball down low.
“They were prepared for the double team of Taylor, but we still stayed committed to it,” Moore said. “We felt going into the game that he was the one guy who could beat us single handedly. When you do stuff like that, naturally you’re going to free up some of the perimeter guys.”
Hawks junior guard Justin Sofman was the primary beneficiary of this, hitting 6-of-10 three-pointers in scoring 21 points, 15 in the second half. Senior guard Whitney Coleman ended his college career by leading Monmouth with 22 points.
Monmouth came out the gates strong, hitting three consecutive shots from distance to start the game in grabbing an early 11-4 lead, matching the largest margin they would enjoy on the night.
The Bobcats finally took their first lead of the game on a Twyman layup with under eight minutes left in the first half and they extended their lead to 25-20. Taylor picked up his second foul at the 7:30 mark.
“I really thought that when it was 25-20, and Taylor got his second foul and he went out, that we might really be able to accelerate it,” Moore said.
But the Bobcats were unable to, as they spent most of the first half trying to figure out the Monmouth zone. QU shot 47.6% from the floor in the half, but went almost four minutes between field goals on a couple of instances and committed 11 turnovers. The Hawks responded with a 9-0 run to take a 29-25 lead, and led 33-31 at the break.
The second half was a different story, as the Bobcats shot an astounding 61.5% from the field for 55.3% for the game. They also turned the ball over only five times. Monmouth kept themselves in the game by hitting 10-of-27 three-pointers on the night compared to Quinnipiac’s 4-of-9, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Bobcats in the final 11 minutes of the game after they took the lead for good. Despite giving up 11 offensive rebounds, QU won the rebound battle 38 to 28.
Moore said he is happy with how his team has matured over the year, and how they didn’t get rattled as the game got down to crunch time.
“I don’t know how good we were tonight, but at least we were resilient, at least we were tough,” Moore said. “[Uconn head coach ] Calhoun used to always say that winning begets winning and losing begets losing…we’ve won a lot this year, so there’s a demeanor and a calmness about our team that we picked up somewhere near the end of January.”
Quinnipiac returns to the NEC semifinals, where last year they got blown out at No. 1 Robert Morris by 27. This season, though, the Bobcats are the top dog in the conference, and someone will have to beat them on their home court to prevent a trip to the dance. Long Island will try to do just that on Sunday afternoon. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. The other NEC semi pits No. 3 Mount St. Mary’s at No. 2 Robert Morris, which is also Sunday. Tipoff for that game will be at 7 p.m.
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