Quinnipiac’s bad habit comes back to bite Bobcats in loss to Niagara

Amarri Monroe goes up for dunk, but his 22 points and 10 rebounds were squandered as Quinnipiac suffered last-second loss to Niagara. (Photo by Quinnipiac Athletics)

By Ethan Hurwitz (@HurwitzSports)

HAMDEN, Conn. — If you don’t nip bad habits in the bud, they tend to flare back up, sometimes in the worst times possible.

For Quinnipiac, allowing teams to fight back into games and steal a win is what gave Niagara a 76-75 win over the Bobcats Saturday afternoon.

Whether it’s struggling to defend the three-ball, not grabbing enough offensive rebounds or just missing an internal fire in late-game situations, head coach Tom Pecora attributed it all to why Quinnipiac allowed a late comeback en route to its second loss in three games. 

“Once again, we’re not learning from our mistakes,” Pecora said. “We’ve been in this situation before where we get up double digits and then let people back in. And it’s a bad habit, you know? It’s a really bad habit for a team to have.”

The first half played out just how the Bobcats hoped it would. Paul Otieno started the game with a three-pointer—something that’s been a drastic improvement for him this year—before Amarri Monroe got a number of quick buckets on his own.

But Niagara head coach Greg Paulus’ team hung around. At halftime, it was tied at 37. Nearing the end of the second half, the Purple Eagles were down by just a single basket. While the Bobcats appeared to be controlling the game, it started to slip through the cracks. 

“One of the things we talked about was defending the stripe, not letting them get good looks from three,” Pecora said. “That’s what let them back in the game.”

Major baskets down the stretch, including a pair of massive triples from Niagara graduate wing Justice Smith, took the life out of a Quinnipiac team that had been slowly losing air. Massive performances from Otieno (a career-high 28 points), Monroe (22 points, 10 rebounds) and graduate guard Savion Lewis (a season-best 11 assists) were tossed to the side.

“But only three offensive rebounds,” Pecora remarked. “They did a great job of checking us out and making sure we couldn’t get to the offensive glass. And that’s obviously been a strong suit for us, second shot opportunities.”

Otieno—who had been nearing the top of the national rebounding leaderboards—was held to just three on the day, none of them on the offensive side. Instead, the Purple Eagles were able to force Quinnipiac’s hand, often settling for an outside kick or a picked-up dribble in the paint.

With a chance to take the lead with under two seconds to play, Monroe had the ball in his hands and got smothered. With no Bobcats to help him out and the game clock drastically dwindling, a low-chance shot got hoisted and Niagara walked out of Hamden with its fourth MAAC win.

“I think he just got caught up, he shouldn’t have given up his dribble,” Pecora said on what he saw on the play. “Then he tried to step through and put something up there soft. We should have people all over the rim, but guys were just watching, and that was kind of a thing from the whole day.”

It’s hard to win when 50 of Quinnipiac’s 75 points are scored by two players. The rest of the Bobcat starting five mustered just 12 total points on 4-for-15 shooting from the field, and defensively, bad switches gave Niagara the hot hand when it mattered.

“I think some of our switches at the end were poor,” Pecora said about having Otieno on top of the perimeter. “You don’t want the five-man out there, and it was a switch that didn’t need to happen. It was kind of lazy. So we got into a lazy switch situation.”

The Bobcats will have some time to regroup—tomorrow will be an off day for the team—ahead of preparations for Friday’s nationally-televised game at Sacred Heart. So despite the loss, what is the team going to take away from the game?

“We’ve just got to raise our intensity and our toughness,” Pecora said. “If you want to win big, you can win, but you can’t win big unless you have an edge to you.”