FAIRFIELD, Conn. — Quinnipiac stuck to its guns late and used back-to-back baskets from star Matt Balanc to stun Fairfield and pick up a 66-64 road win in front of 3,137 fans. The senior guard delivered the game-winner on a drive-and-scoop layup with three seconds left, losing the ball in midair before regaining possession. The Bobcats, 16-4 on the year and 8-1 in MAAC play, are now a perfect 7-0 this season in games decided by five points or less.
At this stage of the season, Quinnipiac continues to get better at finding ways to close games. The Bobcats briefly relinquished the lead when Caleb Fields exploded and led Fairfield on an 8-0 run that was capped by a poster dunk by Jalen Leach over Balanc. After Brycen Goodine tipped in Leach’s missed layup with 1:22 remaining in regulation, it set the stage for Balanc’s heroics.
Balanc’s make to tie the game was a hard shot in its own right, as he sunk a mid-range look while off balance in the paint. His ability to seal the game in its final stages feels like business as usual for the presumptive favorite to win MAAC Player of the Year. The fifth-year guard was seen rallying his troops after Leach finished the fast break slam over him. Balanc’s message to the team was simple in the ensuing timeout.
“We have to understand, they aren’t up 10, they’re up one,” said Balanc, who finished with a team-high 13 points and was complemented by 12 points from Amarri Tice before the Wofford transfer left with an ankle injury inside the final two minutes. “We have to stay composed and we have to understand we’ve been in bigger deficits before. I had all faith in our team that we were able to win that game.”
Quinnipiac head coach Tom Pecora wanted the ball in the hands of Balanc more than anyone else. The rapport between player and head coach has been well on display this season when things get tough and the Bobcats get bailed out by the shot-making ability of Balanc.
“Matt’s a veteran who makes plays that matter,” Pecora said of Balanc. “He doesn’t know how to not compete hard.”
Neither team brought its A-game Sunday, but that failed to detract from the atmosphere in any way. The crowd at Mahoney Arena was buzzing throughout the affair. When Fields delivered his second and-one basket to give the Stags a three-point lead, the building erupted and Fields was on the ground roaring with excitement. The dunk Leach threw down over Balanc is certainly a nominee for dunk of the year in the MAAC, and that also got the Fairfield faithful on their feet.
Quinnipiac frustrated Fairfield with its 2-3 zone early, and the Bobcats raised the defensive intensity another notch in the second half, forcing the Stags into a rough day behind the 3-point line, where they made just five of their 26 attempts from deep. On the offensive end, Quinnipiac was far from crisp and had to overcome 16 turnovers in the process against the steal-happy Fairfield guards. The Stags’ sleight of hand compiled 12 steals, led by three apiece from Goodine and Peyton Smith.
A win is a win, even though it felt like deja vu was playing out all over again with Fields’ torrid stretch late, which followed the Bobcats’ messy ending to a first half that saw Fairfield take a 33-32 lead at the intermission.
Quinnipiac came out of the gate in the second half aggressive defensively. The Bobcats wanted to shore up a few defensive lapses that saw Leach and Fields get the better of them on several first-half sequences. Balanc and Paul Otieno each had two fouls at halftime, and Otieno was forced to the bench after getting called for his third transgression at the 17:53 mark of the second half.
“We just had to play tougher,” said Balanc about the second-half adjustments. “They were beating us for offensive rebounds and we were kind of sitting back on their threes. We needed a more aggressive mindset toward them.”
After letting the Fairfield guards get the better of them in the first half, the Balanc-led Bobcats made enough plays to escape with their 11th win in their last 13 games. With Sunday’s results around the league officially in the books, Quinnipiac sits in first place with a one-game lead over Saint Peter’s and a two-game lead over Fairfield.
“You get on the road and find a way to win, it's like magic,” Pecora said.
Pecora was impressed with how hard Fairfield played, noting that the in-state rivalry with the Stags lifts all Connecticut basketball programs. The rematch between the two schools will come on February 23 at M&T Bank Arena.
“I’ve been going to MAAC games since the ’80s,” Pecora said after the game. “I have a lot of friends who played here and saw a couple before the game. It’s a great rivalry and it’s great for the state of Connecticut.”
“UConn (is) obviously the national champion and everyone knows about every little thing that happens there, but there’s also really good basketball being played (at Fairfield), and at our place, and at Central (Connecticut) and at Yale.”
All season long, Chris Casey has been a preacher of giving a full team effort. His Fairfield squad battled hard Sunday, but its effort was left in vain by Balanc’s coup de grace, which silenced the Stags and their raucous home crowd.
Fairfield was not nearly as effective as it wanted to be on the offensive end, as both halves paralleled each other in terms of starting slow before picking up their play late.
It looked like the first 15 minutes of the second half would cost Fairfield until Fields almost singlehandedly resurrected his team. The senior had a stretch where he scored nine points in a two-minute span late in the second half, even vaulting the Stags to a 56-55 lead on the strength of an 8-0 run, starting at the 5:35 mark and ending with a vicious poster dunk by Jalen Leach over Balanc at 3:52.
Fairfield got off to an abysmal shooting start in the second half before making things interesting late. The Stags were 4-for-23 from the field and 0-for-7 from three-point range at one point in the second half. Their problems were compounded by a slew of easy misses around the rim, which warranted the frustration of Casey after the game.
“We have to make more plays around the rim,” Casey said. “You need to finish those.”
Ultimately, Balanc spoiled Fairfield’s hopes of just barely getting over the finish line. For Fairfield, it can now hang its collective head high on how it defended, save for a few overzealous plays in the second half that allowed Quinnipiac to get to the foul line. Leach was superb in the early stages of this game by backing down the smaller Quinnipiac guards and showing off his adept touch. Leach and Fields were the tone setters for Fairfield, each dropping 18 points and helping the Stags emerge late with multiple leads.
“I thought Fields and Leach did a good job of making plays at the rim,” said Casey, whose team now stands at 6-3 in the MAAC, currently good enough for third place in the league. “Caleb made some good plays off that high ball screen.”
The biggest letdown for the hosts was their 5-for-26 showing from distance, despite Quinnipiac only hitting one more three than they did, but with six fewer attempts. The three-point line has been kind to Fairfield this year, as the Stags convert at a 36 percent clip. Peyton Smith and Birima Seck did a solid job of holding Quinnipiac big Paul Otieno in check, however, the pair of Fairfield bigs were held scoreless on 0-for-7 shooting. They didn’t help take the burden off the Fairfield guards, who were also tasked with trying to fly around to keep tabs on Balanc, the star of the game who dominated the final minute.
“I thought he made two very tough shots, to his credit,” Casey said.
Fairfield could have called a timeout with three seconds left after Balanc hit what turned out to be the deciding blow. However, Casey tends to let his team play with timeouts in his pocket and on Sunday, he gambled on his guards again. Leach’s last-second three for the win was not meant to be, despite it being a decent look.
“We’re not calling timeout there,” Casey emphasized. “We wanted to get the ball to Leach and try to get something. It’s a look I’ll take.”
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