The Bobcats showed why they had the second-best offense in the NEC on Monday.
But against Saint Francis (Pa.), the highest-scoring offense in the conference, Quinnipiac’s women’s basketball team showed why it allows the second-most points in the conference.
The Red Flash went on a 32-17 run in a 14-minute span en route to a 77-64 win at the TD Bank Sports Center.
“I thought [they] really came to play,” Quinnipiac head coach Tricia Fabbri said. “The game was back and forth through the first half, but in the second half I thought we would rally a little bit defensively, and they came out better and we couldn’t come out stronger.”
The Bobcats (10-11, 7-3 NEC) shot 6-27 during the run, while Saint Francis’ Samantha Leach scored 11 of her game-high 23 points and Brittany Lilley notched seven of her 10 assists and scored eight of her 10 points and in the same timespan.
“It was our lack of defense and their offensive fire power,” Fabbri said. “They are just that good of a team that any time we made a mistake they capitalized on it, so I’m going to give credit to [them].”
Kari Goodchild brought down seven rebounds and scored a career-high 20 points in the game, besting her previous high of 16, which was set Saturday against Robert Morris.
“The offense just really needs to feed off [Goodchild’s] energy,” Fabbri said. “Kari’s been carrying us in terms of logged minutes and playing well offensively.”
The Bobcats raced out to a 27-26 lead in the first half, led by Courtney Kaminski’s 11 points, but the Red Flash (13-9, 8-2 NEC) held her to just two points on 1-for-5 shooting in the second.
“They were able to play us zone because they had the lead and it really took out our advantages with [Brittany] McQuain and Kaminski on the inside,” Fabbri said. “We did not have the defensive execution that was needed to be successful tonight and we did not get many consistent stops to truly get us back in the game tonight.”
The Bobcats cut the deficit to eight with 3:16 to go, but weren’t able to cut it further. Saint Francis shot 51.7 percent in the second half and 45.3 percent in the game.
They also forced the Bobcats to make 20 turnovers, including eight by Felicia Barron, one short of a season-high.
The Bobcats were outscored 20-12 in the paint and missed eight layups in the second half.
Quinnipiac will try to rebound from its two-game losing skid when it faces Long Island Saturday.
Photo credit: Ilya Spektor
