Quinnipiac slows down at wrong time in deflating loss to Yale

Doug Young (5) set career high with 18 points, but Quinnipiac came up short Monday against Yale. (Photo by Rob Rasmussen/Quinnipiac Athletics)

By Pete Janny (@pete_janny)

HAMDEN, Conn. — With visiting Yale in town for a local showdown, Quinnipiac wanted to make a statement early on a night the Bobcats were left without starting stretch four Rihards Vavers and backcourt depth piece Daemar Kelly due to a virus that has been spreading around the locker room.

The threes came early and often for Quinnipiac, despite a far from spectacular success rate, and it was enough to carve out an early lead for the Bobcats that morphed into a 35-29 margin at halftime thanks in large part to seven first-half turnovers by Yale. However, the Bobcats fell off in the second half, as Yale’s Danny Wolf steered a game-changing 17-2 run that sent shockwaves through the whole building and sent the Bulldogs spiraling to a 73-66 defeat, spoiling a season-high 25 points from Matt Balanc.

It was a rollercoaster game that ended with the biggest drop off of the night, when Quinnipiac couldn’t string together stops to thwart Yale’s momentum, seeing its offense go without a basket for nearly four-and-a-half minutes midway through the second half.

“No excuses,” Quinnipiac head coach Tom Pecora said after the game. “We had an opportunity to beat a good team but didn’t rise to the occasion in the second half.”

As much as the offensive struggles were suffocating, namely the eight second-half turnovers and questionable shot selection, it was Quinnipiac’s interior defense that got exposed. Yale pounded it inside to Wolf all night long, overmatching Quinnipiac like it rarely had been throughout its favorable non-conference slate. Feeding the hot hand of Wolf, who finished with 22 points and 12 rebounds, produced a more confident iteration of the Bulldogs in the second half that also mixed in big plays from guards August Mahoney and John Poulakidas, who stayed poised despite some shooting funks. Yale’s leading scorer, Matt Knowling, struggled for most of the night, but he too went to work late in the post and left Quinnipiac searching to find itself all over again.

“I think when they went on those runs, their intensity and experience kind of played out,” Pecora said.

The interior dominance was backed by a 36-18 points in the paint advantage for Yale, bolstered by Wolf, a 7-foot sophomore with a high-level inside game that seemingly any team in the country would benefit from.

“He’s involved in every play because he draws you away from the basket and creates great space,” Pecora said about Wolf, who improved his season averages to 12.6 points and 8.7 rebounds per game.

Quinnipiac was beset with rebounding trouble the whole night, which just so happened to finally rear its ugly head after Yale swung the momentum in the second half. Overall, the Bobcats were outrebounded 35-24, and were especially compromised once Paul Otieno fell into foul trouble by picking up his third foul at the 15:43 mark. He sat, and then the Bobcats crumbled shortly after that while working with smaller lineups that fell flat.

“He could not get his rhythm going and was not rebounding like he was,” Pecora said about the off-kilter performance for Otieno. “You’re in and out, in and out, and never really getting a flow.”

Balanc turned in a steady performance that featured some tough makes early and a few bonus threes at the end, continuing to play like the all-MAAC talent Quinnipiac will surely need more of if it wants to go places this season. For Balanc, sustained success can and should be expected, but now it will be up to the Bobcats’ supporting cast to determine the immediate direction of the program. Pecora will have no choice but to demand a much better version of Otieno than the one tonight that had one more rebound (four) than points (three).

Freshman guard Doug Young battled hard and made big shots, including three 3-pointers, to set a career-high 18 points which should do wonders for his confidence. Even more impressive about Young was his defense, according to Pecora.

“Great energy defensively,” Pecora said about Young. “He’s out there and he’s a pest, and that’s what we need from him.”

Getting everybody healthy will be vital, while hoping none of the active bodies fall ill during the longer stretches between games around the holiday season. IVs were administered to those who needed them before Monday night’s game, Pecora says, but he reiterated there were no excuses for the series of events that led to Quinnipiac’s first home loss of the season.

“With basketball season being through the winter, every team has some guys down in the dumps,” Pecora said. “Next man up.”

You want to win every game, especially one like this that had local stakes and a solid crowd to show for it despite final exams still looming. With the loss, Quinnipiac fell short of beating Yale a second consecutive time after previously dispatching the Bulldogs in double overtime back in 2014.

“For Connecticut basketball, it makes too much sense only six miles down the road,” Pecora said, emphasizing the close distance between both schools. “Long after James Jones and I are both not at Yale and Quinnipiac, I think it’s a game that needs to be played for the community.”