For the second consecutive season the Quinnipiac women’s basketball team entered the playoffs as a No. 7 seed. For the second consecutive season the Bobcats lost in the opening round.

This time it was to No. 2 Monmouth, losing 55-36 on Saturday afternoon at the Mulitpurpose Activity Center in West Long Branch, N.J.

Quinnipiac took an 18-17 lead with nine seconds left in the first half off a Kari Goodchild jumper, but Gabby Singer’s 3-pointer with two seconds left gave the Hawks a 20-18 halftime lead that they never surrendered.

Monmouth went on a 10-0 run to open the second half. The Bobcats didn’t score their first points of the second half until Felicia Barron hit a jumper 6:27 into the half.

The Hawks extended their lead to as many as 24 points, going up 53-29 with a little more than four minutes to play.

“We played a great first half with a lot of emotions, tremendous defense and tremendous effort throughout,” Quinnipiac head coach Tricia Fabbri said. “We just couldn’t find the bucket in the second half, and Monmouth did.

“The one open shot we gave them they drilled right before halftime to take the 20-18 lead, I think that was really deflating to us. It really was a rough second half for us.”

Quinnipiac shot just 23.1 percent from the field throughout the game. The Bobcats held Monmouth to 27.3 percent in the first half, but the Hawks shot 43.8 percent from the floor in the second half and outscored the Bobcats 35-18.

Abby Martin tallied 25 points and 11 boards for the Hawks.

Senior Lailah Pratt led the Bobcats with eight points and seven rebounds.

Fellow senior Courtney Kaminski – QU’s leading scorer – did not play due to personal reasons.