Inside the Numbers: Central Arkansas at Queens

Queens guard Chris Ashby led all scorers Tuesday night with 25 in a Royals win over Central Arkansas.  (Photo:  Queens University of Charlotte Athletics)

 

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CHARLOTTE – Following two tough games in the Bluegrass State that Queens split, the Royals returned to their home deck Tuesday night. The stakes couldn’t have been higher for the home side. Queens sat two games out of the ASUN lead and needed a win to keep its conference title hopes alive and bolster its chances for a possible first-round home game in the conference tournament.

Queens got one of the wins it needed. The Royals bounced back from a tough, late loss at Eastern Kentucky Saturday afternoon, leading Central Arkansas by nine or more points for nearly 35 minutes Tuesday night in an 89-72 victory.

You know how it happened. Now, let’s take a somewhat unorthodox dive…Inside the Numbers!

16:  Queens canned 16 triples in the victory, a season-high for the Royals. Queens set its prior high of 14 in two games – in a November MTE against USC Upstate and …13 days ago at Central Arkansas. Queens tried a dizzying 45 threes in the win in Conway. Chris Ashby hit fewer threes Tuesday than in Conway – nine there, seven at home – but also tried 12 fewer than in the 63-47 Royals victory on the road. Queens’ prior Division I high came on January 14, 2023, as it shot 15-of-27 in a 107-78 win over North Alabama in Charlotte. The only higher output by any Division I Royal squad was on December 1, 2023, when it shot 22-of-41 in a 134-69 win over Carolina Christian.

Queens coach Grant Leonard on the shooting effort, particularly from deep:  “We do concepts and we let the guys make reads and decisions. You could see them change up their defense and it didn’t affect our offensive flow at all. We were able to attack whenever they went zone or in those traps. We were able to get the ball to the middle, get it out, and make the right decision. You saw a lob to Kalib (Mathews), you saw a backside three to Chris, and those are back-breaking plays as they’re trying to create a stop on a timeout or a dead ball.”

55.2:  The Royals also turned in a season-high in three-point percentage, as they knocked down 16-of-29 tries from deep. Chris Ashby led the home side with a 7-for-14 effort, but six Royals booked at least one triple in the game. Of the shooters aside from Ashby who hit one, that group of five shot 75 percent (9-of-12) from distance.

30:  Queens turned in one of – if not its best – points off turnover totals of the season. The Royals converted 27 turnovers by Division 3 Lynchburg into 33 points earlier in the campaign. This number was significant, given the Royals’ 18 turnovers at Eastern Kentucky. Queens compelled 18 Bear miscues Tuesday, which was the highest total it has recorded against a D1 foe this year.

Leonard on turnovers:  “I was really happy that our guys were able to execute the gameplan. The biggest thing is that I thought for large portions of the game, we played harder, we were first to the floor, and our ball pressure created 18 turnovers. Anytime there’s 18 turnovers for them and seven for us, it’s a huge deal.”

Central Arkansas coach John Shulman on turnovers:  "Their pressure bothered us. Give them credit, they pressured us defensively and we didn't handle it very well. We had to go away from Princeton (offense) and do some ball-screen stuff, and that's disappointing. If you're going to try to be a Princeton offense, you have to be able to claim your space and we were never able to do that. We had nine assists and 18 turnovers. Looking at that, we should have gotten beat by 40 points.”

36:  The Queens bench tallied 40.45 percent of its points Tuesday, logging 36 points and allowing Leonard to perform some much-needed load management. The Royals employed hockey line changes at times, allowing everyone to play no greater than 27 minutes in the game. Queens is a top-15 unit in Division 1 in bench scoring, and Tuesday's total was bolstered by Maban Jabriel (14) and Yoav Berman (10) both reaching double figures.

Forward Leo Colimerio on the Queens bench:  “Not a lot of teams have a great bench like us. Our main focus was to get their starters tired and then get a run in the second half. I feel like we did a good job. I feel like we have the best bench in the conference and today it showed.”

Leonard on the bench and the team as a whole:  “I think we have a true identity. I think that there are times and moments where we play ‘take your soul’ hard, and that’s when we’re really good. When we’re crushing teams on the glass and wearing teams out with our bench – 36 bench points – for us, it’s a collective effort. I think our guys understand our identity and understand their roles. They really believe that if we’re the hardest-playing guys, we can make a run in the conference tournament.”

7:  Queens tied its season-low in turnovers against a Division 1 foe. The Royals coughed it up just seven times Tuesday, equaling the team’s turnover total in a home loss to Lipscomb 10 days prior.

Leonard:  “When we take care of the ball, I think this group’s special.”

24:  The Royals helped on 24-of-28 buckets, making for the second-highest assists total Leonard’s team has recorded this year. Queens dropped 25 dimes on 35 baskets in a 95-60 win at Stetson on January 16.

Leonard:  “When we don’t (get stagnant and play in isolation), when the ball flows and moves, we’re really good.”

5:  Queens center Malcolm Wilson stuffed five Bear field goal attempts, cementing his status as the nation’s leader in blocked shots. Wilson’s defensive presence allowed the Royals to extend defensive pressure further up the floor. The game marked Wilson’s 12th with five or more blocks this season.

Leonard on Wilson:  “It’s a big deal (having him in the middle). There were a couple times when they broke our press and funneled it right to Malcom, and he was able to erase a mistake or two. More importantly, it allows guys to feel like, even in the half court and our base defense, they can pressure the ball, and if they get beat, it’s not the end of the world. Having the nation’s leading shot-blocker back there is just huge. It’s a confidence booster for our guys to know they can really ramp up the intensity in the half-court.”

14:  Jabriel logged the second-highest points total of his freshman campaign. The Canadian sank 5-of-8 tries – 4-of-6 from three – to finish within one point of his 15-point total at Ole Miss earlier in the year.

6:  Queens forward Leo Colimerio booked one-quarter of his team’s aforementioned 24 assists. This marked the ninth time this year the grad transfer has collected five or more helpers in a game.

22:  Queens boarded just 22 misses Tuesday night. The total was their lowest in a victory all season. The Royals tallied 20 in a loss at BYU earlier this season.

Ashby led all scorers with 25 for Queens, hitting 7-of-14 from distance. Colimerio contributed 15 on 5-of-9 from the deck and 5-of-7 from the line. Jabriel booked 14, with Mathews recording 11 and Berman 10.

Guard Brayden Fagbemi paced Central Arkansas with 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting (4-of-6 from three). Forward Elias Cato returned to the Bears’ lineup and added 15 on 3-of-7 shooting (8-of-9 from the line). Guard Mike Evbagharu hit 5-of-9 tries to tally 12, while forward Nehemiah Turner added 11.

Quick tempo numbers:

Central Arkansas:  1.091 PPP (66 trips), 45.5% scores, 27.3% turns, 47.9% shooting (23-48), 43.5% three-point shooting (10-23), 88.9% free throw shooting (16-18)

Queens:  1.435 PPP (62 trips), 58.1% scores, 11.3% turns, 53.8% shooting (28-52), 55.2% three-point shooting (16-29), 77.3% free throw shooting (17-22)

Both teams resume play Thursday. Queens welcomes Austin Peay to Curry Arena for its final home game of the regular season. Tip time is set for 7:00 (Eastern), with streaming coverage over ESPN+. Central Arkansas travels to West Georgia to do battle with the Wolves. The Bears and Wolves are tied for the final spot in the ASUN conference tournament with three games remaining. Tip time from Carrollton is set for 7:45, with ESPN+ handling the streaming coverage.

QUEENS 89, CENTRAL ARKANSAS 72

CENTRAL ARKANSAS (7-21, 3-12 ASUN)

Fagbemi 7-10 1-2 19, Turner 3-5 5-5 11, Evbagharu 5-9 0-0 12, McCormick 1-7 0-0 3, Cato 3-7 8-9 15, Etim 0-0 0-0 0, West 0-0 0-0 0, Dehrmann 0-0 0-0 0, Mancell 0-1 0-0 0, Fox 3-6 0-0 8, Seixas 1-3 2-2 4. Totals 23-48 16-18 72.

QUEENS (17-11, 10-5)

Mathews 3-5 4-4 11, Cash 0-1 0-1 0, Ashby 7-15 4-4 25, Colimerio 5-9 5-7 15, Wilson 1-1 0-0 2, Mann 0-3 1-2 1, Shine 0-0 0-0 0, Jabriel 5-8 0-0 14, Nevill 0-0 0-0 0, Anderson 1-1 0-0 3, Pollard 3-4 1-2 8, Berman 3-5 2-2 10. Totals 28-52 17-22 89.

Halftime:  Queens 42-31. 3-Point goals:  Queens 16-29 (Mathews 1-1, Ashby 7-14, Colimero 0-2, Mann 0-1, Jabriel 4-6, Anderson 1-1, Pollard 1-1, Berman 2-3), Central Arkansas 10-23 (Fagbemi 4-6, Evbagharu 2-4, McCormick 1-6, Cato 1-2, Fox 2-3, Seixas 0-2). Fouled out:  NA.  Rebounds:  Central Arkansas 31 (Evbagharu 5), Queens 22 (Jabriel 6). Total fouls:  Central Arkansas 17, Queens 17. Technicals:  Turner (UCA).

Points off turnovers:  Queens 30, Central Arkansas 7.  Points in the paint:  Queens 24, Central Arkansas 22. Second-chance points:  Central Arkansas 7, Queens 5.  Fast-break points:  Queens 12, Central Arkansas 4.  Bench points:  Queens 36, Central Arkansas 12.

 

Three takeaways from UConn’s comeback win over Villanova

Tarris Reed, Jr. helped spark UConn comeback Tuesday, tying game late in regulation before Huskies defeated Villanova. (Photo by UConn Men’s Basketball)

By Connor Wilson (@Conman_815)

HARTFORD, Conn. — It wouldn’t be a UConn game in 2025 without something unusual happening.

Nothing seems to be out of the question after the events that transpired in Newark on Saturday, sequences that saw the Huskies blow a seven-point lead with under 40 seconds remaining on the way to an overtime loss to 6-18 Seton Hall.

Things were looking very similar on Tuesday, minus the blowing the lead part, as Dan Hurley’s bunch never built a lead larger than 2-0 before finding itself down 14 at the under-12 timeout in the second half. Naturally, the Huskies would bounce back and continue what’s been a roller coaster month of February with a 66-59 win over Villanova to avoid dropping two games in a row to unranked opponents.

“When we get a team down by 14 in here, we have them right where we want them,” Hurley joked in regards to Huskies’ fourth victory at home this season trailing by at least that number.

There’s a lot to unpack from what some may consider a surprising turnaround for the reigning champs, so here’s three takeaways from UConn’s win over Villanova:

Defense stepped up late

The one knock on UConn all season long has been on defense. Usually a Hurley speciality, this year’s Huskies team had been ranked outside the Top 100 in defensive efficiency on KenPom for a majority of the season. The defense deployed in the second half against the Wildcats was some of the best this season, forcing tough shots and turnovers with some full-court pressure.

“Our defense today was really good, maybe the best it’s been all season against some really good players,” Hassan Diarra said. “We need to bottle that up for the next few games.”

Around the nine-minute mark in the second half, Jaylin Stewart checked in for the first time since he played just 57 seconds before the break and was tasked with being the disruptor in the press. His length and presence made the Villanova ball handlers uncomfortable, which forced errant passes and giveaways.

“We were down by double digits and needed to create some energy,” Diarra said. “You want to stay aggressive the whole game, especially on the defensive end.”

All in all, the Huskies outscored the Wildcats 27-6 over the final 11:58, the exact moment the visitors took their largest lead of the night. Tarris Reed, Jr. took responsibility of handling Eric Dixon and limited the nation’s leading scorer to just five points in the second half.

“I just went out and said, ‘yo, I’m just gonna play hard,’” Reed said. Whatever happens, I’m just gonna play as hard as I can and try to make an impact on the glass. Overall, just playing hard and having that next possession mindset.”

Liam McNeeley

The freshman has found his footing since coming back from a high ankle sprain that sidelined him for over a month. After having a 38-point outburst on the road at Creighton a week ago, McNeeley scored 20 points in the win over Villanova, including 16 in the second half.

Liam McNeeley scored 16 of his 20 points after halftime in UConn’s win over Villanova Tuesday. (Photo by UConn Men’s Basketball)

“It was a do-or-die situation. You have to be desperate,” McNeeley said. “We have to play with desperation and that’s what we did in those last 12 minutes. We need to play like that all game, every game, the rest of the season.”

McNeeley was one of the key pieces to the comeback, erasing what was a poor first half both for himself and the team. He hit a timely three to make it a one-possession game for the first time all second half at 55-52, and stepped it up on the defensive end during that stretch of full-court pressure.

“He wasn’t playing well up until the point when we were down 12 or 14, but when he turned it up, we turned it around and won by seven,” Hurley said. “He has more pressure on him than any freshman in the country when it comes to him needing to do well for us to win.”

McNeeley also hit some clutch free throws, including the foul shots that put the Huskies back in front for the final time. In the second half, he connected on a perfect 9-for-9 from the charity stripe and showed great poise both getting to and converting at the line.

“I love shooting free throws,” McNeeley said.

Depth is still an issue

One thing Hurley has stressed all year is the lack of depth that this year’s team has compared to years past in the program. Aidan Mahaney and Jayden Ross are two players in particular that both Hurley and the fan base expect more from in these big games, but it seems neither seem to show up more often than not.

“The difference between this year’s team and prior teams is that we were just so deep,” Hurley said. “We could practice so hard and so sharp, but now we have to back off with Liam’s injury, Hassan’s injury and Alex (Karaban)’s minutes.”

On Tuesday, Mahaney played a season-low two minutes and Ross a season-low three minutes. Ahmad Nowell, who has seen little action when healthy this season, played the second half backup guard minutes while both Mahaney and Ross watched from the bench. Neither of them played again after halftime. Despite this, there is still belief that a turnaround may be coming.

“I think guys are starting to gain some confidence,” Diarra said. “We need them to step up.”

The Huskies are back in action Sunday when they travel to Madison Square Garden for a clash with 10th-ranked St. John’s looking for another signature win to add to their resume late in the regular season. 

Matt Balanc’s influence still felt at Quinnipiac in Amarri Monroe’s emergence

Amarri Monroe and Quinnipiac have soared back into MAAC lead. Junior forward has taken cues from former teammate Matt Balanc as he transitions into Bobcats’ leader on court. (Photo by Quinnipiac Athletics)

By Vincent Simone (@VTSimone)

HAMDEN, Conn. — When Quinnipiac fell to Saint Peter’s in the semifinal round of last year’s MAAC tournament, the Bobcats lost not just the game, but their leader as well.

Matt Balanc was the unquestioned heart and soul of the 2023-24 Quinnipiac Bobcats, the first team in program history to capture a MAAC regular season title, and first to finish atop its conference since the 2009-10 squad went 15-3 in the Northeast Conference. Across five years in Hamden, Balanc accrued 1,721 points, second-most in the program’s Division I history. With his college eligibility exhausted, Quinnipiac has relied on the next wave of leaders to fill the void.

That mantle of leadership is new to junior forward Amarri Monroe, who remains influenced by Balanc’s example as he has helped push the Bobcats back into first place entering the final month of the regular season.

“I’m new to this whole leader thing, so I kind of just look back at last year trying to think about (Matt) was a leader and just how hard we played,” Monroe said following Sunday’s 79-74 win over Iona. “If I want to be a leader, I’ve just got to do everything I’m asking guys to do. I can’t tell guys to do it if I’m not doing it. That’s something Matt always did. He would never tell you to do something if he wasn’t doing it.”

Monroe, the Preseason MAAC Player of the Year, played a pivotal role on last season’s squad, averaging 12.9 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 1.8 steals per contest as a sophomore after averaging just 3.6 points per game in his freshman campaign at Wofford. The Newburgh, New York native has reached a new level in recent weeks, having scored 20 points or more in six straight games and recording a double-double in six of his last seven. At 17.8 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 2.5 steals per game, Monroe is squarely in contention to follow Balanc as the league’s top player.

“His confidence is growing,” Quinnipiac head coach Tom Pecora said of Monroe. “Going from average to good is hard. Going from good to great is incredibly hard. To be a great player, we’ve got to get 40 minutes out of him on both ends, but he’s definitely trending in that direction.”

Sunday’s victory, coupled with Merrimack’s narrow loss to Marist, pushed Quinnipiac back into first place at 12-3 in MAAC play, a half-game ahead of the Red Foxes and a full game in front of the Warriors. The trio remain in firm control of the top three seeds with less than a month until the conference tournament tips off in Atlantic City. With March fast approaching, Quinnipiac remains in search of its first NCAA Tournament bid. Building off the regular season success of last season and fueled by the failure of coming up short last year, Monroe and the Bobcats hope this year will provide the opportunity to make some history.

“We have a really special team and I’ve got to do whatever I’ve got to do to help this team win,” Monroe said. “We’re starting to click as a team, we learn from our mistakes. This is the most important time of the season. February going into March is where a team can either rise or fall, and we’re not gonna fall.”

Rick Pitino talks about St. John’s defying analytics, but by how much? A closer look inside the numbers

NEW YORK — At various points during this renaissance season for St. John’s, you may have heard Rick Pitino mention the unusually high variance between typical analytics and how his Red Storm team has managed to buck almost every statistical trend through a campaign that has yielded a 22-4 record to date, the four losses coming by a grand total of just seven points.

Pitino spoke from the same pulpit Sunday after St. John’s used its unique style and shutdown defense to fend off Creighton and give itself a two-game lead in the Big East standings with five games to play, prompting a rehash of a brand of basketball that, in some circles, must be seen to be truly believed.

“I think you guys are looking at some basketball history,” he said to open his postgame press conference. “When you see a team shoot 38 (percent) from the field, 33 from three and 58.6 from the free throw line, you’re gonna lose by double digits. But every single night, this team wins. It’s an amazing thing. I think it’s because they get more possessions, they work so hard at the defensive end.”

With St. John’s limitations shooting the ball from 3-point range—the Red Storm’s 29 percent mark from distance ranks 344th in the nation among 364 Division I teams—the defense takes on a much more important role than it normally would, even in an already defense-oriented culture like Pitino’s. Field goal percentage defense, a statistic Pitino’s associate head coach, Steve Masiello, consistently valued as the head coach at Manhattan, has done some of the best work in bridging the gap. The Red Storm has held opponents to just 40 percent shooting for the year, 23rd-best in the nation and tops in the Big East. Among schools from the Power 5 conferences, that number ranks 10th-most efficient. So what exactly drives the bus when the Johnnies do not have the ball in their hands? Creighton head coach Greg McDermott, now with a two-game sample size to guide him, credits the relentless pressure St. John’s places on the ball.

“They’ve got a lot of guys to put pressure on the rim,” McDermott said, citing the impact of Zuby Ejiofor in particular, but also Aaron Scott and RJ Luis at various points in games. “We had a hard time holding our spot. We got knocked off our spot too often. Their defense is outstanding. They wear into you over time (with) their physicality, their toughness. The pressure, as the game wears on, it wears into you a little bit.”

For the season, St. John’s has used that pressure to average 9.3 steals per game (tied for 16th-best in the nation and fourth among Power 5 teams behind only Missouri, Marquette and Iowa State), and has forced turnovers at a 22.1 percent clip. In layman’s terms, the Red Storm is essentially coming up with a takeaway on two of every nine possessions. Since 2010, four teams have won national championships with a defensive turnover percentage of 20 or higher: Duke in 2009-10 (21.3 percent), Pitino’s 2012-13 Louisville squad (27.1), Villanova in 2015-16 (20.6), and Baylor in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 year (24.4).

The common thread there? All four of those teams had Top 10 offenses per KenPom in those respective seasons, where St. John’s presently ranks 78th, which would be far and away the lowest-ranked offense to cut down the net if the Johnnies do make it that far. That is where the aura truly lies.

“I think what you’re seeing is an amazing thing,” Pitino reiterated. “What you’re seeing from this team is truly amazing. They’ve gone through a lot of serious injuries but they’ve never wavered. It’s been that next man up mentality, but what I like is we’ve never wavered with our discipline of the way you should be. It takes time to build a team, and even with the injuries, this team never wavered with their work ethic. They’re getting to know. They’ve arrived. Because of the way we play, with five turnovers (against Creighton), meticulous with the rebounding down the stretch, it’s very special.”

“There are a lot of ways to win basketball games,” McDermott shared. “They’ve certainly found a great recipe with this group.”

With the Red Storm’s best start since the legendary 1985 Final Four season still intact, it has been a common refrain for Pitino and his players to reflect on how special this particular journey has been, with Kadary Richmond adding that the results and buzz enveloping New York is the vibe he craved upon transferring from Seton Hall. But from an outsider’s perspective, the return of a traditional power to its former perch, even at the expense of his own program to an extent, has lifted the profile of all parties involved.

“It’s great for our league for St. John’s to be good,” McDermott said. “I don’t want them to be as great as us, but (Sunday), they were better. But it’s awesome for our league to have the Garden full for a Big East regular season game when a team from the Midwest comes out. We didn’t bring 4,000 fans here, it was St. John’s fans that packed the place. It’s awesome for the conference, and they’ve played at a very consistent level.”

“When you think about the games that they’ve lost, this is a team that is a whisker away from not having a loss, or maybe having one loss and being one of the top teams in the country. When you can guard, that travels. It travels on the road, it travels in the Big East tournament. It’s gonna be great in the NCAA Tournament when you can defend with the physicality that they do.”

The defense has the analytics to back it up, but at the same time, has an old-school axiom that buoys it even stronger. It has always been said that hard work beats talent when talent does not work hard, but this St. John’s team—with no disrespect to anyone it has beaten—proves it on a nightly basis.

“I’ve never, in my lifetime, coached a team like this,” Pitino recollected. “I’ve never seen these types of statistics and this much winning, ever. It defies all statistical logic, but that tells you how good they are with effort. You guys are witnessing something very, very special.”

Inside a Quinnipiac postgame film session, and how constant studying helped beat Iona

Doug Young (5) passes inside as Quinnipiac battled Iona Sunday. (Photo by Quinnipiac Athletics)

By Ethan Hurwitz (@HurwitzSports)

HAMDEN, Conn. — Hours after Quinnipiac’s 79-74 win over Iona Sunday afternoon, the coaching staff will be hard at work, even though the Bobcats’ next game isn’t for another week.

Later tonight, each member of the Bobcat roster will get game film—already chopped up and labeled—for their viewing pleasure. The latest videos to be in their inbox will show a gritty win over a feisty Gaels team, one that had junior forward Amarri Monroe grab yet another double-double (20 points, 10 rebounds). 

It was his 11th double-double of the year, and his fourth in as many games. When it comes to how he will break down his performance, Monroe has his own process. 

“I watch it through once, not really focusing on anything specific, and then I’ll probably go back,” Monroe said. “(The coaching staff does) a great job of separating like offense, defense and whatever. They label everything. So it’s easy for us to kind of break it down. We don’t really have to do it ourselves. They kind of tell us what to look for and what to watch.”

What he will see on tape is a Bobcat team that, from what Monroe said postgame, likes to play from behind. The first 20 minutes were a slugfest, both sides trying and failing to grab any true momentum. After the break, a blow to the gut sidelined Monroe for almost eight minutes.

“If they get good shots, I’m not on them. But (if) the right guys are shooting it, there’s a food chain, and they understand where they are in the food chain, certain guys have much greater liberty than not to take open threes,” Quinnipiac head coach Tom Pecora said on how the team adapted without Monroe. “So that’s really the key. But when you get good looks and they don’t go down, you gotta have trust in them, especially if it’s guys that put in their work and they come in, they shoot every day, which just about all of them do.”

It’s the behind-the-scenes work that has lauded big performances from senior guard Doug Young (who’s racked up 33 points in his last two games) and freshman guard Jaden Zimmerman (16 points against the Gaels). The latter recently set his career-high in scoring at Sacred Heart just two days prior, and is taking the freshman leap he knew he could make.

“I’m confident in myself, and I’m confident in my ability,” Zimmerman said postgame. “Always playing with the older kids, like open runs. I’m always playing with older people, even when I played at AAU, I was playing up. So I’m just confident.”

Both Young and Zimmerman are getting an extended look on the floor, in part because of some recent ball handling struggles from Savion Lewis. His eight turnovers were second-most in a single game by a Bobcat at the Division I level, but his ability to block out past games is one Pecora knows all too well. 

“The one thing Sav does is watch a ton of film,” Pecora said. “So he’s going to watch this game tonight, I’m sure, multiple times, two or three, see what they did to him and how he could have done a better job.”

So what will the Bobcats’ veteran point guard see on the Iona film? He’ll see a player who’s sometimes a bit too passive—though assists have always been his bread and butter—and teams trying to prey on a Lewis who won’t drive to the rim. 

“We’re going to edit it, chop it up, and we send our guys stuff so they get it on their phone tonight, and through tomorrow, he’ll come in, he’ll watch tape with the coach,” Pecora said. “When a team treats you like this, this is what you gotta respond with, because that’s what’s going to happen when opponents see that tape. You know what I mean? They’re going to see the same thing.”

Sure, the Bobcats are winning games, albeit not as controlling as they may have hoped. But a lot of that can be attributed to the film sessions and how they get brought onto the floor during practices. Pecora has praised his assistants for watching an abundance of video, and the way it’s translated during practice has paid off.

“What we do is in the beginning of the week, we’ll go over some cuts that, the second team you’re playing, without even letting them know it’s (the other team’s) stuff,” Pecora said on December 6. “So tomorrow, when we go through, (they’re like) ‘Oh, shit, we did this Tuesday.’ That way you kind of grease the skids for that. So that’s kind of how we move forward with confidence.”

The Gaels were able to make some inroads during the second half of Sunday’s game. A big performance by senior guard Dejour Reaves (15 points, six rebounds, six steals) gave the visitors a five-point lead seven minutes into the second half, and a number of steals put some pressure on Quinnipiac. 

But then the Bobcats, who remained in the MAAC’s top spot with a 12-3 conference record, dug down and found the answers on the floor, the answers that they already knew were coming.

“I watch a few times just to get a feel for the game,” Monroe said on why he watches so much video. “It’s kind of a cheat code, you know, watching yourself or watching your opponent, which is why I promote watching film a lot. It’s like a cheat sheet for a test.”

After playing two games in three days, Quinnipiac will get an off day tomorrow. Tuesdays are typically a slower day, one where Pecora’s staff will start to install some of the team’s upcoming opponents. Now deeper into the MAAC schedule—with players on both sides banged up—it’s critical to get some of what Pecora calls “skill days.” 

Iona’s game plan was simple, even without big man Yaphet Moundi (he missed Sunday's game with an illness): Try and take away the Bobcats’ best players and force them to beat you on the perimeter. But once Monroe went down, others began to step up.

“We could have cranked up our pressure, cranked up our defense,” Iona head coach Tobin Anderson told IonaHoops.com’s Guy Falotico postgame. “That’s a dangerous team. They’ve got a lot of weapons. We don’t have as many weapons, so we gotta be sound defensively.”

But according to Monroe, they already knew some of the Gaels’ plays, attributing it to team-wide film sessions and pre-game reps. 

“I appreciate the coaches, the time you take into making the film. We get film sent out every night, and then we come back in the morning and watch it all together,” Monroe said. “So it’s very important, and you can see, like on the court, we know some of their plays. It’s because we watch the film. We obviously rep it before the game. So film is definitely a huge part of our program.”

Saint Peter’s holds off Rider to win second straight, move closer to middle of MAAC standings

By Andrew Hefner (@Ahef_NJ)

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — The fight for the coveted MAAC crown is in full swing, but this year, the battle to avoid the bottom is just as exciting as the one at the top.

Saint Peter’s is no stranger to March success, having won the MAAC five times, including last season, and most famously making it to the Elite Eight just three years ago. Now, however, the Peacocks find themselves fighting amongst the bottom half of the conference, hoping to scrape out now much-needed wins like the one they brought home this Sunday. 

Following Saint Peter’s first home conference win of the season Friday, the Peacocks moved up one place in the MAAC standings. Heading into Sunday’s matchup with Rider, the Peacocks were on the outside looking in with regard to the MAAC tournament, following the implementation of a new format in the offseason, leaving the bottom three squads home while the top ten battle it out in Atlantic City.

Despite the disappointment, the Peacocks are still rallying for a spot and after the big win against Rider, head Bashir Mason explained, “it’s really just to keep our hopes alive, our hope of playoffs alive. We know where we are in the standings. We know what we have to do to get there, which is to win every game. You know, we haven’t particularly played great here at home in the conference play, so the fact that we've been able to put together back-to-back wins here at home gives us a little bit more momentum right now.”

To start the in-state matchup, Rider entered the game hot with a big three from junior Zion Cruz, who most recently dropped an impressive 18 points in the Broncs' last matchup against Iona. Rider continued applying the early pressure, adding three quick layups to quickly put the Peacocks in a 9-0 hole.

“I thought it was an energy thing and a timid thing by us,” Mason said of the slow start. “Not starting Bryce (Eaton), not starting Armoni Zeigler, two guys who probably deserve to start, we’re putting pressure on ourselves. We have to win these games. I thought a couple guys just came out a little bit timid, but I also thought they were tough shots that those guys made and I was okay with that.”

After the first timeout, however, Saint Peter’s was anything but timid. Rejuvenated by Bryce Eaton and Armoni Zeigler off of the bench, the Peacocks got their scoring started, bringing the game back within two before ultimately tying it at 19 midway through the first half. The tie would not last long, as junior big man Mouhamed Sow joined the fun with two big buckets, while helping to facilitate the court expertly. Sow missed multiple games earlier this year due to injury, so it seemed the Peacocks were elatd to have him back at full capacity.

While time continued to tick down in the first half, Saint  Peter's did as well, ultimately owning a 32-23 lead after a big three-point play from Sow. Rider, though, was not finished. With three minutes left before halftime, the Broncs took and made smart shots with the help of Tariq Ingraham, scoring eight straight points to cut the Peacock lead to 32-31 when the buzzer sounded. Neither team would be able to run away in the second half, as constant back-and-forth scoring from both sides kept the win within reach.

“I reminded us this morning of who we are,” Mason recalled. “Regardless of what our record is and how things have been going in terms of wins and losses, we're a top 15 team in the country defensively, and offensive rebounds, we're number 15 in the country as well. So our identity is there, we just have to play to it.”

Mason’s squad certainly played to its identity after halftime in the second, scoring big second-chance buckets while keeping the all-important matchup close. The Broncs did not rest easy either, as the tandem of Cruz and TJ Weeks put up a combined 21 points in the last half to keep Rider close.

In the end, the game would be decided by free throws and fouls, with freshman Flash Burton of Rider coming up short on his two tries before a controversial tripping call sent Eaton to the line to finish it out for the Peacocks.

“Welcome back to Saint Peter's basketball,” Mason said. “Toughness, defending, rebounding, connection, being locked into each other. For us to be able to win a game like that against that caliber opponent, I think it says a lot about where we're heading right now.”

Saint Peter's will be heading next to Mount St. Mary’s, currently fourth in the MAAC, for an important matchup with more playoff implications on the line. Tipoff for the Friday night contest is slated for 7 p.m.

LIU vs. FDU Photo Gallery

Photos from LIU’s 62-58 win over FDU on February 15, 2025:

(All photos by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)