Quinnipiac stays hot to win 10th straight

By Pete Janny (@pete_janny)

HAMDEN, Conn. — Quinnipiac’s story is one about strength in numbers.

The Bobcats have a stockpile of offensive weapons that has made them a machine at getting leads and closing out games. In Thursday’s home matchup versus Saint Peter’s, Quinnipiac did most of its heavy lifting in the first half despite MAAC player of the year candidate Matt Balanc in foul trouble. The Bobcats led for all but the opening two minutes in an 84-73 victory in front of a rejuvenated crowd at M&T Bank Arena.

When Balanc checked out of the game at the 16:14 mark with two early fouls, Saint Peter’s had a chance to grab hold of this game early. The Bobcats proceeded to shoot 65 percent from the field in the first half, backed by huge starts from Paul Otieno and Rihards Vavers, the latter of whom matched a season-high 18 points in this game that he initially set in a four-point win over Central Connecticut that moved the Bobcats to 2-0 at the time. Vavers nailed all three of his three-point attempts in the first half, including back-to-back bombs that stretched the Quinnipiac lead to 24-11 at the 10:44 mark. 

In December, Vavers battled sickness and then a knee bruise which put him on the back burner for over a month. After failing to score in double digits his previous four games since returning, Vavers broke out at the most opportune of times for Quinnipiac, who was able to stave off multiple second-half comeback attempts by the Peacocks that cut the deficit to nine three times. 

“When he makes threes like that, it forces the defense to spread out and it gives our guards some more space,” Tom Pecora said of the 6-foot-7 Vavers, who hails from Latvia. “I tell (Savion Lewis) all the time, if Ri makes one, give him another.”

Both Vavers and Savion Lewis linked up for an historic play at the 4:01 mark, when Vavers connected on his third three of Lewis’ 171st assist of the season, a program record since 1998, when the Bobcats entered the Division I ranks. Lewis’ dream season continued with eight more assists against Saint Peter’s to put him at 7.6 assists per game and only a hair behind Minnesota’s Elijah Hawkins, who is first nationally with 7.7 dimes per game.

After watching his Bobcats scrape by the Peacocks in the second half, Pecora spoke like a proud father when asked about Lewis’ career in Hamden. 

“We go back a long time,” Pecora said of Lewis, a Long Island native much like Pecora, by way of Dix Hills, in Suffolk County. “I knew him as a kid and I know him as a middle-aged man because he’s been here six years. He’s obsessed with the game and getting better.”

But even on a night where he made history, Lewis was far from perfect. Matched up with hard-nosed guard Latrell Reid, Lewis committed five turnovers as he and his Bobcat teammates struggled with Saint Peter’s pressure defense for stretches in the second half. No Quinnipiac player hit a three in the second half, and while Pecora admits he could have been more liberal with his timeout usage, the veteran hard coach wanted to see how his team would respond to poor stretches of turnovers and missed shots. 

“A couple of the assistants were asking about a timeout, but I just wanted them to grow,” said Pecora, whose team made enough adjustments against a Saint Peter’s team that ambushed the home team by making seven first-half threes. “In the back of my mind, I thought, ‘I may be shooting us in the foot here.’”

The style of the game completely changed in the second half, with Saint Peter’s forced to go away from three-point range after halftime. Quinnipiac won the battle inside with a 42-28 advantage in points the paint. Otieno feasted with 15 points and 10 rebounds, and received one of three construction hard hats in the locker room, staples of Quinnipiac’s postgame celebration after a win. Vavers and Tice, who also had 18 points, were the other recipients.

After winning 10 games in a row and improving to 19-4, it would be easy for any team to think far ahead into what March may have in store. But Pecora knows too well about the dangers of that game, having first-hand experiences with March heartbreak during his days at Hofstra. 

“Mid-major basketball tournaments are Russian roulette,” Pecora said. “You have one game when your kids are missing shots and the other team is in the zone, and the game is over with no at-large bid.”