A pair of individual milestones for the Bobcats could not prevent their first Northeast Conference loss of the season, 72-60, at the hands of Monmouth.

Playing at Monmouth University last night, the Bobcats committed a season-high 23 turnovers that were too much to overcome.

“Overall, I’m really disappointed with our effort tonight,” Quinnipiac head coach Tom Moore said. “I thought we played as poorly offensively as we could possibly play. The 23 turnovers will attest to that.”

Freshman guard Dave Johnson set a new career high with 14 points and senior forward James Feldeine moved to 994 career points with 12 on the afternoon.

Despite the Bobcats troubles on offense, they put forth a solid effort on the defensive end for the first and most of the second half to keep them in the game.

Monmouth’s lead in the first half swelled to seven points, but the Bobcats fought back with a 10-1 run sparked by James Johnson and Dave Johnson who each had three points in the run. The Bobcats later took a three-point lead after a layup from Feldeine, but allowed seven straight points to the Hawks to bring the score to 31-27 at halftime.

“I thought we gave it a good effort on the defensive end for about 30 minutes and then succumbed to really bad offense,” Moore said. “I thought it got the better of us. We consistently came down, made bad passes, fumbled good passes; we weren’t ready to take advantage of some of the gaps in the matchup zone.”

After falling behind by as many as six early in the second, the Bobcats countered with another 10-1 run midway through half. Feldeine’s 3-pointer started the run and Dave Johnson’s second trey of the game gave Quinnipiac a 40-38 lead.

Quinnipiac tied the game one more time before Monmouth began to pull away. Feldeine converted a layup to tie the score at 44. The Hawks outscored the Bobcats 28-16 the rest of the way for a 72-60 victory.

James Johnson finished with a team-high 14 points. Jeremy Baker posted seven points to go along with a three assists and nine rebounds.

The loss brings the Bobcats to an even 6-6 on the year and 1-1 in NEC play with their next game coming on Jan. 7 against NEC preseason favorite Mount St. Mary’s.